NEWS
Follow UsOnce Gujarat Titans were bundled out for just 89 runs on April 17 (Wednesday), all Delhi Capitals wanted was to hunt it down as quickly as possible so that they could improve their NRR. And they did exactly that, chasing down the target in only 8.5 overs.
Jake Fraser-McGurk led the way with the bat, smashing 20 off 10 deliveries. Abishek Porel (15 off 7), Shai Hope (19 off 10) and skipper Rishabh Pant (16* off 11) also played those brisk cameos and got the job done with more than 11 overs to spare.
"(I was) just trying to get on to a nice start and hopefully get the net run rate going in our favour. When you are riding this phase (of good form), you've got to ride it for as long as you can. Keep going and trying your luck, cricket is a feeble game when it turns,” said Fraser-McGurk.
"(The NRR) was definitely something we talked about during the break. I don't think I needed much encouragement to go out and try and chase that fast. Something we talked about and happy to get it done pretty quick.
"We got the better of the conditions. There was a little bit of dew and it skidded on nicely. Kept a bit low though. I didn't face much spin or slower-pace balls, so it was nice personally."
This was Delhi’s third win of the season and they are now sitting at No.6 on the points table after seven games. "We have got confidence in the way we play, we know how to go about our business. Took us a few games to find that out. We can keep looking up and jumped up a few steps on the ladder here. We keep going (like this), who knows..."
Pant was brilliant with his bowling changes and affected a couple of quick stumpings in the ninth over. Add two more catches behind the stumps, Pant was named Player of the Match.
"Pant's keeping, it's pretty good. Ain't it? Last year, we tried really hard to cover that gap. But it's very hard to cover a world-class keeper, if not the best wicketkeeper-batter in the world,” said DC’s assistant coach James Hopes.
“Now that he is back, you can just see everything about his game, his keeping is improving, his captaincy is becoming very sharp, his batting has been pretty good from the start of the tournament. He is rounding into some pretty good form for the back half of the tournament. And he is leading pretty well at the moment.”
The Capitals’ next three games are in Delhi and they would want to win all of them and climb to the bottom half of the points table. “We are halfway through now. We spoke, leading into the game, that a win tonight, will put us onto the table,” said Hopes.
“And we also got a good week-and-half for us, with three home games in Delhi. We are running into the freight train, the next game which is SRH. We are already preparing for that. If we have a good week-and-a-half, then we are going to be right around that top 4.”
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