Delhi Capitals assistant coach Mohammad Kaif was pleased to see the Delhi’s openers scoring runs in the powerplay, which is the important factor they talked about after the loss in the last game against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
“Sharjah has been a high-scoring ground so we had to score big runs. We spoke to the batters about a bit more intensity in the Powerplay and we got that right from Shikhar (Dhawan) and (Prithvi) Shaw. Shaw played a fantastic knock. We talked about the intent and it was there from the first ball today.”
On having a score in the mind, if they had any, Kaif said that there was no particular score as such, the plan was to go hard from the start which the openers did it, followed by Shreyas Iyer, who played a brilliant knock.
After a few slow starts in the powerplay in the previous games, both the Delhi openers came out all guns blazing and stitched a 56-run partnership in 35 balls. After which skipper Shreyas Iyer coming in at No 3 smashed 6 sixes and 7 fours in his unbeaten knock of 88 runs off just 38 balls.
After being in a strong situation in the second innings when KKR were 137-6 after 15 overs, KKR’s pair of Eoin Morgan and Rahul Tripathi gave a scare to the Delhi side after hitting 61 runs in three overs.
When asked about the plans or the change in the existing ones to tackle that assault, Kaif rued the fact that leg-spinner Amit Mishra couldn’t bowl his remaining overs after getting hit on his fingers in an unsuccessful attempt of taking the catch of Nitish Rana.
He bowled an amazing spell and took Shubman Gill’s wicket. Kaif also added that Tripathi was a surprise and Sharjah being a small ground, people coming into bat go for their shots from the get-go, but was pleased that DC prevailed eventually.
On the bowling plans on a ground like Sharjah with the small boundaries and a good track, Kaif said with the wicket stopping a bit, cutters were working. He commended the fast bowler Harshal Patel who bowled cutters into the wicket and was getting a good purchase out of it and took wickets of Nitish Rana and Dinesh Karthik.
Lastly, Kaif said that this win and the two points were very important for the Delhi side as you don’t want to lose two games in a row. He said that it’s a long tournament, you will lose games here and there, but it’s important to keep coming that and that’s what the Delhi side did on Saturday.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)