Sharjah: Delhi Capitals' assistant coach Mohammad Kaif on Saturday heaped praises on spinner Amit Mishra, saying that he bowled well against the young Kolkata Knight Riders batsman Shubman Gill.
Kaif's remark came after Delhi Capitals thrashed KKR by 18 runs in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match.
In the match against KKR, Delhi Capitals registered 228/4 in the allotted twenty overs and then restricted their opponent to 210/8, winning the match by 18 runs.
Gill scored 28 runs from 22 balls with the help of 2 fours and one six for KKR. He was finally sent back to the pavilion by spinner Amit Mishra in the 9th over.
"Mishra has been playing IPL for many years, Shubman Gill's wicket was very crucial, he is someone who likes to play till the end, the way Mishra bowled to Gill, it was great to see. Rabada had an off day, overall it was a complete game," Kaif said in a virtual post-match press conference.
In the last over, KKR needed 28 runs off the final over with Rahul Tripathi at the crease. Eoin Morgan and Tripathi had formed a 78-run stand to revive KKR's hopes of winning the match.
Morgan was dismissed for 44 in the penultimate over by Anrich Nortje, but Tripathi was still there for KKR in the final over. However, in the last over, Marcus Stoinis clean-bowled Tripathi (36) to hand Delhi a win.
"The way Tripathi played was surprising, he has not gotten many chances in the tournament so far, he looked very good, it was touch and go, it was very tight in the end, Sharjah offers you high-scoring games, at the end of the day, we had a good game," Kaif said.
"Marcus Stoinis has been bowling well in this tournament, whenever he has had the ball in his hand, he has looked comfortable. He has been bowling 135kmph consistently, we knew he had to bowl 2-3 overs in the game against KKR. Stoinis looked good in the nets as well and we had no doubts that Marcus will come good in the last over, especially the yorker to Tripathi was right up there," he added.
IPL points table
In the match against KKR, Prithvi Shaw and Shreyas Iyer starred with the bat for Delhi. Iyer played a knock of 88 runs while Shaw registered 66 runs. The opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Shaw had also registered 56 runs in the first five overs. Eventually, Delhi posted a total of 228/4 in the allotted twenty overs.
"Sharjah is a high-scoring game, we spoke to the batters before the game to probably show some more intensity in the powerplay and we got that from Shikhar and Shaw. Shaw played a fantastic knock, we know how dangerous he can be in the powerplay, we know the intent from the top-order against KKR," Kaif said.
"We had no target in mind, we had to get momentum on our side in the powerplay, the way Shikhar and Shaw started and then Iyer finished with a brilliant knock. It was a team effort and the batters had the intent to play shots. This game we had to go hard and score big runs," he added.
