Delighted with our start to the second phase: Rishabh Pant

Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant asserted that he was ‘very happy’ with how his side fared today as they beat bottom-placed Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets to regain top spot in the table. 

Delhi lost the toss, but an exceptional, all-round bowling performance saw them restrict SRH to a mere 134 on a good batting wicket. 

Prithvi Shaw did not fire, but mature knocks from the experienced trio of Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer and Pant took the Capitals home with more than two overs to spare.

Pant, speaking in the post-match presentation, said that he was chuffed with his side’s performance.

“Very happy with this performance. We had a good first phase... Happy to start this way. We want to focus on the process [is what Ponting says],” Pant said.

“It was a pretty good bowling... our bowlers did a pretty good job to restrict them. We have one of the quickest bowlers in the world. Pretty happy as the skipper.”

The victory, though, was set-up by the bullet arm of Anrich Nortje, who finished with remarkable figures of 2/12 off his 4 overs. 

Taking the new ball, the right-armer dismissed danger-man David Warner in the very first over, and once again took out the experienced Kedar Jadhav in the 13th over to dent the Sunrisers’ innings.

The South African, who remarkably did not play a single game in the first leg of the season, revealed that all he did was try and keep things simple.

"Obviously missing out on the first half of the tournament... Personally I wanted to bring the energy. Looking at the first game of the tournament, we decided it was nice to see some grass. Nice to have some sort of assistance, we didn't have to do too much; just keep it simple. I don't focus on that [getting the big wickets],” Nortje said.

The Capitals will now travel to Abu Dhabi, where they will clash with the Rajasthan Royals on Saturday, September 25.