Delhi Capitals all-rounder Shardul Thakur was delighted after bowling a superb spell against Punjab Kings at the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai on Monday. DC had posted a fighting score of 159 runs after Mayank Agarwal won the toss and decided to field first.
PBKS were then given a brisk start by their in-form opener Jonny Bairstow, who raced to 28 off just 15 balls. However, the right-hander was dismissed by Anrich Nortje of a short-pitched delivery.
Shardul Thakur then bowled a crucial sixth over in which he dismissed Shikhar Dhawan and Bhanuka Rajapaksa. Dhawan’s wicket was a huge scalp for Delhi Capitals as the southpaw is known to play anchor role in many matches where the score is not par.
Thakur made good use of his variations and he was right on the money. In the death overs, he accounted for a well-settled Jitesh Sharma, who could have taken the game away from Delhi Capitals. Furthermore, he dismissed Kagiso Rabada with a slower ball to return with figures of 4-36, which is his best in the IPL.
Thakur was awarded the Player of the Match for his fine bowling spell. He said in the post-match presentation, “I always like to perform in crunch times, the last two games were important and I always feel happy when I rise to the right occasion. The 6th over was a big over where I got two wickets, they were cruising and in both innings, fast bowlers were going for runs in the powerplay and as soon as the powerplay ended, the runs stopped. The spinners came in and did a good job. As a bowling unit we were trying to hit good areas, but after 12th over there was dew which is why we did not bowl Kuldeep Yadav. I’m preparing well and whenever I got the chance, trying to put some score and hoping I will continue my run with the bat.”
On the other hand, Mitchell Marsh played an imperative knock of 63 runs to help his team get past the 150-run mark. David Warner was dismissed for a golden duck and it was crucial for Marsh to bat long.
Marsh said after the game, “A great win. You can never judge a wicket until both teams bat. The spinners turned the game in the middle overs and 160 ended up being enough. I just look to get as many as I can in the powerplay with the bat before it starts spinning. For the last 18 months, I’ve had that mentality in the powerplay. I thought it was a really good partnership between Sarfaraz and me. He played some amazing shots. Our innings was sort of a start-stop with wickets. Credit goes to the bowlers; they were outstanding. It was just about getting a partnership going with the bat. We weren’t able to quite do that throughout our middle overs tonight to get up to 180. Even 15 or 20 runs can change momentum. [On back-to-back win] We spoke about that today. It’s been one of those seasons where we’ve been stop-start. It’s about peaking at the right time. We’ve got one more to go. We know if we win that, we’ll be in the finals. There’s a lot of belief and talent in this team.”
Delhi Capitals will now need to win their last league stage match in order to qualify for the playoff stages. The Capitals will next take on Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Saturday.
