Axar Patel appeared even more bewildered when his team fell for 75 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their second consecutive IPL capitulation in 48 hours, and he had little to say after Delhi Capitals failed to defend 264 against Punjab Kings on Saturday.
Josh Hazlewood’s masterful use of the short ball strategy and Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s noticeable swing reduced the Delhi Capitals to 9/6 in Powerplay overs.
The outcome was the lowest total of the season, as RCB easily won by nine wickets.
“Even I don’t know what happened. That’s why they say you have to be on your toes in cricket. We have to move on from this match,” PTI quoted Axar as saying at while about the post-match presentation ceremony.
DC’s tournament momentum was impacted by the single that David Miller turned down in a one-run loss to Gujarat Titans, and Karun Nair dropping dollies against Punjab Kings only made things worse.
“From today’s point of view, you can say it did effect, but you can look back, if the catches were taken (Nair) or had we taken the single against GT, then momentum would have been with us. The game is such that there is no room for ifs and buts. You have to be positive, you had a bad day and take the positives from the last 5-6 games,” Axar added.
After Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s banana inswing cleaned out a naive former India U-19 Sahil Parakh, the DC captain rejected the idea that there was an exaggerated swing on offer.
“I wasn’t surprised, they are world class bowlers, they swing it every ground, but if our openers or top order had played them out then the result might have been different.”
After over 530 runs were scored in the previous game, Hazlewood, who dismissed KL Rahul and Nitish Rana with short balls, expressed uncertainty about the type of track that would be available.
“Probably turning up here after 500-plus runs in the last game, was not sure what was going to happen,” Hazlewood said, adding that he followed pace bowling colleague Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s advice.
“Was just following his (Bhuvneshwar) lead. There was a bit there in the first six overs – enough there to work with, and it was skidding on quickly from a short of a length. Once the ball got soft, it got more even,” Hazlewood said.
He also talked about how he set up Rana, who appeared to be out of depth and in a tangle when facing a short ball.
“In general, you wanted the batter to hit it down the wicket and in the V. The short ball was nice as well, just about the accuracy. When that ball was nice and hard, it was tough to bat. Would have been nice to bowl four and get off the field,” said Hazlewood.
Rajat Patidar, RCB captain, was likewise taken aback by the outcome.
“Even I am surprised the way wicket played,” RCB skipper said.
“All credit goes to the bowlers, Bhuvi and Hazlewood. They hit the right areas. The swing was normal but the good thing was we got early wickets and that kept us in the driving seat. The way Suyash bowled, stump to stump, it was really good to see,” he concluded.
