Delhi Capital are on a winning spree as they beat Royal Challengers Bangalore to surge on top of the IPL 2020 points table. With the job still half done, a happy Shreyas Iyer credited his teammates for showing the right temperament in pressure situations.
Delhi have been one of the most consistent sides so far in the competition. With four wins from five matches, they have ticked the right boxes and have gone better under the watchful eyes of Ricky Ponting. On Monday, they produced another clinical to beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 59 runs.
Delhi Capitals go on top of points table
Batting first, Delhi Capitals banked on a good start from Prithvi Shaw and Marcus Stoinis to put 196 runs on the board. The openers added 68 runs before Sotinis ran a carnage against the RCB bowlers. Shreyas Iyer had a rare off -day in business but it didn’t have any impact with Rishabh Pant and Marcus Stoinis making up for it.
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Stoinis remained unbeaten on 53 runs from 26 deliveries including six boundaries and two massive sixes while Pant chipped in with 37 runs to post a massive total. While many thought it to be a close encounter, Delhi Capitals bowlers made it look like a walk in the park.
Kagiso Rabada was again of top-notch with good support from Anrich Nortje. And the Ravichandran Ashwin-Axar Patel combo made sure Amit Mishra wasn’t missed, who has been ruled out of IPL 2020. Virat Kohli tried his best to shoulder the responsibility but it wickets tumbling on, a rash shot was always coming.
Happy with how things have gone so far – Shreyas Iyer
Rabada’s tally of four wickets took them to the top of the wicket-takers list while Axar’s 2 for 18 in the middle-over earned his man of the match award. Speaking at the post-match ceremony, Shreyas Iyer, who has looked like a better leader this season, admitted that they are happy to play fearless cricket. He also mentioned that it is a long tournament and they need to carry the momentum going forward.
“Getting four out of five, I will take that any day. Kudos to the boys and the temperament shown in pressure situations. Our strategy was to be fearless and play with full freedom. We have got good youngsters in our side, so we just need to go out and execute our talent and skills. I am very happy with the way things are going so far, and we need to keep up the momentum,” Shreyas Iyer said.
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Reacting to Amit Mishra’s loss, Shreyas Iyer said that it is sad to lose someone who was in good form. The Delhi Capitals skipper also indicated that they are not keen to tinker with the side much and are looking to keep things simple.
“It is saddening when a senior player (Mishra) who was doing amazingly well gets injured but we have got good replacements as well. Chopping and changing spoils the atmosphere in the team so we’re trying to keep it really simple,” Shreyas Iyer concluded.
