The Delhi Capitals (DC) were back to winning ways against Mumbai Indians (MI) on Saturday (2 October) after a small hiccup against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in match 41 of IPL 2021 at the same venue in Sharjah.

The DC left-arm spinner Akshar Patel had a great game against the defending champions MI as he returned 3-21 in his 4 overs which included three key wickets of Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav along with Saurabh Tiwary.

Patel who was adjudged as the Player of the Match for his performance, talked about reading batter’s mind.

“I think I'm varying my pace well, and also able to read the batter's mind, think I'm one step ahead of them and that's helping me. In that sense, it's going well for me at the moment,” the left-arm spinner said after picking up the Player-of-the-Match award.

IPL 2021: DC's Avesh Khan says he's always looking to take wickets, rather than restricting runs

The 27-year-old then talked about his bowling strategies against the five-time champions MI.

“I thought he'll try to attack me (on his dismissal of Quinton de Kock), I felt he will try to go over cover and that's why I went wide of off-stump, he ended up slicing it to backward point. It's crucial as to how you use your fingers to get revolutions, the body action is important,” DC’s Axar Patel said.

“It's all about how you finish the action, the amount of pace variations is the key. I have mastered a new delivery, but I don't need to use it when the regular variations are working so well,” Patel further added.

The Rishabh Pant-led DC will now take on the current table toppers Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Monday (4 October).