Delhi Capitals (DC) continued their dominance in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) as they thrashed Royal Challengers Bangalore by 59 runs in Dubai on Monday (October 5).
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Asked to bat first, Delhi piled up 196/4 in 20 overs on the back of Marcus Stoinis’ unbeaten 26-ball 53 and Prithvi Shaw’s 23-ball 42 at the top. Rishabh Pant (37 off 25 balls) and Shikhar Dhawan (32 off 28 balls) also made valuable contributions with the willow.
In reply, RCB could manage only 137/9 as none of the batters except for skipper Virat Kohli (43 off 39 balls) touched the 20-run mark.
For the Capitals, Kagiso Rabada (4/24) registered the best figures of IPL 2020 While Akshar Patel (2/18) and Ravichandran Ashwin (1/26) jolted the RCB batting unit in the powerplay.
Addressing the press conference after the match, Ashwin hailed the bench strength of DC, saying that it is good enough to form another IPL team.
"That's one of the beauty of this particular Delhi side. Even when my shoulder dislocated, Amit [Mishra] came in and played the role. Now he is injured, so Akshar has come in and played the role. There is enough strength on our bench and sometimes when it comes to the IPL, the people coming out of that bench become very important. That bench is probably good enough to be another IPL team, it has got a lot of quality," Ashwin said.
"I think Amit will be dearly missed. Moving forward, we will try to keep him happy at home."
Notably, Amit Mishra got ruled of the IPL 2020 due to finger injury on the eve of Delhi’s clash against RCB. But his replacement, Akshar, did a fabulous job as he dismissed Aaron Finch, Moeen Ali and earned the Player-of-the-Match award for his brilliant economy-rate as well.
Commenting on Akshar Patel’s performance, Ashwin said: "Sometimes we tend to blow up images and stats in T20 cricket. Sometimes I feel it is a bit overrated in a game like T20 because it is somewhat like football, where people are playing their roles and one such person is Akshar. He always goes under the radar. He builds the pressure up for someone else to capitalise and take the wicket.
"These are the heroes that are appreciated inside the dressing room for us at Delhi Capitals and Ricky Ponting is very particular about that. When you get appreciated, people want to stick to their roles."
By virtue of this victory, Delhi Capitals stormed to the top of the points table with 4 wins from 5 games and they look set to reach the play-offs earlier than other teams.
"I think we have got a good side. Everyone is putting their hand up. I thought we were a bit rusty initially getting into the tournament. Even for me, it has taken five games to get through the full quota of four overs; it has been quite an interesting year. I bowled four overs for the first time in this year's IPL. The biggest positive is that there is still a lot of room for improvement, so I think we will get there at the backend of the tournament," Ashwin said.
(With ANI inputs)
