Axar Patel put in another all-round performance to guide the Delhi Capitals to their second win of the 2023 Indian Premier League on Monday. Patel hit a crucial 34-run knock before picking up two important wickets as DC beat the Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven runs in Hyderabad.
Choosing to bat first, DC lost Phil Salt on the third ball. Mitchell Marsh got off to a good start but failed to convert it into a big score. Things went from bad to worse for the side from the Indian capital as Washington Sundar picked up the wickets of captain David Warner, Sarfaraz Khan and Amin Khan in one over to leave DC reeling at 62/5 after eight overs.
However, Axar Patel and Manish Pandey steadied the ship with a crucial partnership of 69 runs off 59 balls as DC posted 144/9 in their 20 overs.
Chasing 145 to win, SRH recovered from the early wicket of Harry Brook with Mayan Agarwal taking charge of the chase with Rahul Tripathi for company.
Axar once again came to DC’s rescue getting rid of Agarwal for 49 and giving his side a toe-hold in the match. Ishant Sharma and Kuldeep Yadav struck soon after with Axar then getting rid of SRH skipper Aiden Markram to leave the home side struggling at 85/5.
Though Washington Sundar and Heinrich Klaasen kept SRH in the hunt, the DC bowlers did enough to clinch the match.
Axar Patel was named the player of the match for his performance in both the innings with the all-rounder terming his contribution with the bat more important than the ones with the ball.
“2/20 happened because of the 34 off 34. Obviously that was more important,” he said in the post-match presentation.
“I didn’t even realise what’s going on. I had just ordered coffee and I had to leave that cup of coffee as it was because I found out we had lost three wickets in one over. I had to run and go to bat. Once I was in the middle, I had a chance to think about what is going on. (Manish) Pandey and I were there and Pandey told me that the deeper we could take it the better it is because if we have some runs we can put up a fight.”
On a difficult batting track, Axar and Kuldeep made scoring difficult for the SRH batters conceding only 43 runs in the eight overs between them while also picking up three important wickets.
“Obviously (the pitch) was a little slow. The ball was stopping. Kuldeep and I have bowled in partnerships even in Delhi, so when I batted I thought that Kuldeep and I can trap the batters. So the more runs I could score the better for us. So that was the plan and the way Kuldeep and I bowled and had fun,” Axar said.
Both sides will play each other next in the reverse fixture in Delhi on Saturday.
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