Sharjah: After registering a comprehensive 46-run win against Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals' all-rounder Harshal Patel said that the Sharjah wicket was considerably slow and he along with Shimron Hetmyer decided that a total around 170 would be competitive enough.
Rajasthan Royals failed to chase down the target of 185 runs and the Steve Smith-led side was bowled out for 138, giving Delhi Capitals a win by 46 runs.
While batting first, Delhi Capitals registered 184/8 in the allotted twenty overs. For the Shreyas Iyer-led side, Shimron Hetmyer and Marcus Stoinis got among the runs as both batsmen played knocks of 45 and 39 respectively. Harshal Patel also got among the runs as he played a knock of 16 runs from 15 balls.
"When Hetmyer and I were batting, we were thinking to score somewhere around 165-170 because this was a considerably slower wicket than we had played on earlier, the ball was definitely stopping, this Sharjah wicket was considerably different so a total around 170 was competitive," said Harshal during the post-match press conference.
"I think we bat pretty deep, we have Axar at eight and Ashwin at nine, and Rabada can hit a few sixes as well we have a deep batting lineup, anytime after the 16th over, it is about hitting one-two boundaries every over and we were just trying to get the maximum number of runs," he added.
With the ball in hand, Harshal returned with the figures of 1-29 from his four overs and he got the wicket of Shreyas Gopal.
Speaking about his performance with the ball in hand, Harshal said: "The plan was just to keep mixing the pace and length, the wicket against Rajasthan was slow and it was stopping a bit, my idea was to hit a different pace and keep mixing it up."
"It is all about changing the lengths and changing the pace, you cannot let the batsmen settle with one pace and length, it is all about mixing it up, as a bowling unit our execution has been exceptional and we are getting better as the tournament is progressing so we are pretty happy as a bowling unit," he added.
In the match against Rajasthan, Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel got three wickets among them. Ashwin also managed to bag the crucial wicket of Jos Buttler.
Responding to the performance of spinners, Harshal said: "Both Ashwin and Axar are smart spinners, they know their game and how to fox the batsmen, they know how to bowl on these pitches, both are experienced enough and they had their different plans, whatever plans they had, it worked out for them."
With this win, Delhi Capitals has gone to the top of the IPL 2020 standings with 10 points from six games. The side will next face Mumbai Indians on Sunday, October 11.
