Hyderabad: With a tight four-wicket victory over Kolkata Knight Riders at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Thursday, Delhi Capitals finally managed to get off the mark in terms of wins on the points table.
Though Delhi lost a few wickets towards the end of their chase of 128, vice-captain Axar Patel played a crucial knock of 19 from 22 balls, including hitting the winning runs, to take the team over the line in the last over.
Reflecting on that match, Axar stated that Delhi would try to play near-perfect matches in the coming time, starting from Monday’s clash against IPL 2016 winners Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
“The wicket was a bit tricky and they bowled quite well. Therefore, I wanted to take the game as deep as possible. There’s always room for improvement and we’ll definitely try to play a near-perfect game in our upcoming matches. If we can do that then that’ll be a big confidence booster as well,” he was quoted as saying by a release from the franchise.
Axar reckons Hyderabad’s fast-bowling unit will challenge Delhi’s batters and hoped for the pitch to be a good one for the batters. Batting first, teams have won twice out of three games at this venue in IPL 2023.
“The wicket in Hyderabad is good for batting. The pitch will help our batters as we have been playing on slow wickets in our last few games. The ball comes onto the bat nicely in Hyderabad. Sunrisers Hyderabad’s fast bowling unit will pose a challenge to us, but we’ll plan properly to take on the challenge,” he added.
Axar signed off by saying the victory for Delhi coming after five consecutive losses does lead to some positivity in the team atmosphere, though they are still at bottom of the points table.
“A win certainly changes the environment in the team. A few doubts creep in when you’re not able to cross the line. Our win in the last match will help us build confidence. We will try to keep winning games.”
–IANS