Visakhapatnam, March 30 After Mitchell Starc’s incredible 5-35 set the base for Delhi Capitals securing a seven-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad, skipper Axar Patel felt the move to give the left-arm pacer a third straight over in power-play worked well, citing that he was in good rhythm.
The match also marked the first time Starc, who varied his pace really well, pick a five-wicket haul in T20 cricket. Three of his wickets came in the power-play to push SRH on backfoot. Giving Starc an extra over in power-play resulted in him taking out the dangerous Travis Head, leaving SRH in tatters at 37/4.
The remaining two scalps of Starc came in the back end of the innings, as SRH were bowled out for 163 in 18.4 overs. “Plan was to give Starc two overs at the start and two overs at the end, but he was in good rhythm. Hence, I gave him the third over and he was able to pick an important wicket,” said Axar after the match ended.
Axar also said he’s enjoying his life as DC’s captain, with him revealing that he takes suggestions from players seriously. With DC getting two home wins in Visakhapatnam, it sets things right for them before they go back to their original home venue – Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi around mid-April.
“I have told before that I am going to lead the side in the same manner. You need to be up with your game. You can't take any game easily, there are 10 good teams playing. We need to focus on our plans and process. Today we were successful in doing so.”
“We have experienced players in the team, they give me suggestions. Sometimes I follow them. Enjoying playing with these players. We are playing at Kotla since many years, we'll have similar plans. Need to assess the conditions after going there.”
SRH captain Pat Cummins admitted the side will have to look back at few of its departments after suffering two straight defeats. “We didn't get going, didn't get a score on the board. A few wrong shots, but catches in the deep does happen in this format of the game.”
“I don't think it's a big margin, on another day, you get going with a couple of shots, not everything went our way in the last two games, we can look back and think about different options. It's too early to worry about being two down, hopefully we'll get back going forward, as I said, we need to have a look at a few of our options.”
Cummins signed off by lauding young Aniket Verma for hitting a brilliant 41-ball 74. “Coming into the tournament, everyone was super impressed with him going into the lead-up to the tournament (on Aniket Verma), was fantastic and gave us half a chance, was impressive with the way he went about things (during the net sessions and practice games).”
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