Delhi Capitals (DC) skipper Rishabh Pant on Wednesday (20th April) admitted there was nervousness in their camp ahead of their match against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Mumbai. He said that despite things being tough, their focus was on the match.
DC had a horrendous last few days off the field. There were as many as five coronavirus cases detected in their camp. Things got, even more, worse when on the game day against PBKS, Tim Siefert returned a positive test.
Clouds loomed over the commencment of the match but later it was confirmed by the BCCI that the game will go on as per the timetable of the tournament.
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There were a lot of speculations about how DC will perform with a lot of tensions inside the camp. However, the Pant-led side came up with a sensational all-round performance as they thumped PBKS by 9 wickets to register their third win of the season.
Bowling first, after the winning toss, a superlative effort by DC bowlers bundled out the Agarwal-led side for just 115 runs. The likes of Akshar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Lalit Yadav and Kuldeep Yadav claimed two wickets each while Mustafizur Rahman also had a wicket to his name.
Chasing the low total, DC openers David Warner (60*) and Prithvi Shaw (41) came out all guns blazing and scored 81 runs in the power play, the highest of the season so far. Sarfaraz Khan also chipped in with 12* runs as they chased the target with 57 balls to spare.
Speaking at the post-match presentation, Rishabh Pant admitted that before the match they were nervous when they got to know about Tim Seifert returning the positive COVID-19 test. But their focus was purely on the match.
“There was a lot of confusion, because we learnt of the positive test in the morning (Tim Seifert). We were a bit nervous and there were talks of the game getting cancelled. But we spoke as a team that we must purely focus on the match," Rishabh Pant said.
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Talking about Warner and Shaw, Pant said that he likes to give them freedom as they both know their roles well.
He revealed that after he noticed the ball stopped in the pitch, he decided to bring spinners early on and thought of restricting them under 150.
"Mostly, I like to leave them (Warner and Shaw) alone because they know their roles. Delhi Capitals has to go through every game. Results are not in our control, but we have to give everything in our games.
“On a wicket like this, after one or two overs, I saw the ball was stopping a bit and I thought I should use more spin. I thought 150 would be a good enough score to stop them at," he said.
DC will next face Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Friday (22nd April) at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
(PTI inputs)
