Last Updated on 4 years by Charbel Coorey
Delhi Capitals’ captain Shreyas Iyer had a satisfying start to the 13th edition of IPL, which ended with a Super Over win. The very second match of the tournament between Kings XI Punjab and the Capitals went right down to the wire from a stage at which Punjab looked to be down and out from the match.
Chasing 158 to win, KL Rahul’s men were well in place to score the winning number after Mayank Agarwal played a resilient knock of 89 runs. However, Kagiso Rabada came to rescue for Iyer’s team as the sides met for a one-over faceoff after the game ended in a tie. Shreyas Iyer shared that he had total belief in Rabada to deliver the goods, who had also performed brilliantly in another tied encounter against Kolkata Knight Riders in 2019.
“It was so difficult to stand out there. I would like to say that we’re used to this – even last season. Kagiso is a gamechanger for us. If you see out top-order batsmen, it’s difficult to stop them when they get going, so it’s difficult to tell them not to. There was grass on the pitch and it was moving and we discovered that in 3-4 overs. I wouldn’t give the lights as the reason for poor catching. But that’s not the reason because we got one session to train here under the lights. It was really important for us to get wickets because the total was small. Back of my mind, I knew that if I save KG’s overs for the end, it’ll work out”, he said in the post-match presentation.
However, it was new recruit Ravichandran Ashwin who turned the game in Delhi’s favour. The off-spinner dismissed the duo of Karun Nair and Nicholas Pooran in his first over in the game, thus breaking the back of Punjab’s batting order. However, the former Chennai Super Kings player had to be taken off the field as he seemed to have injured his shoulder whilst fielding off his own delivery.
“Credit to Ashwin, he almost changed the game in that over. It’s up to the physio but Ashwin said he is available for the next game. It was really gutsy of [Axar] to lead the team in that area. It’s good to know in the back of mind that I have an extra spinner who can pick it up. [Super Over combo] we usually go left-right combination, it becomes difficult for the bowler”, Iyer added.
Delhi Capitals have again commenced their campaign on a stellar note and look set to continue this momentum going ahead in the competition. Next up, they will square off against Chennai Super Kings on September 25 at Dubai International Stadium.
Written by Anjali Jha. Follow Anjali on Twitter today.
