Rediff.com« Back to articlePrint this article

Dhawan all praise for Delhi pace duo Rabada, Nortje

October 15, 2020 00:10 IST

'Every time, we want them to deliver they are delivering.'

IMAGE: Kagiso Rabada celebrates the wicket of Jofra Archer. Photograph: BCCI/IPL

Delhi Capitals skipper Shreyas Iyer is in pain after hurting his left shoulder but the full details will only be known after his scan reports arrive, said stand-in captain Shikhar Dhawan after their team beat Rajasthan Royals by 13 runs in the IPL match, in Dubai, on Wednesday.

 

Iyer hurt his left shoulder while trying to effect a diving stop and had to leave the field due to severe pain.

"He is in pain but good thing is he is able to move his shoulder. I haven't spoken to him at length. We will get proper report tomorrow," said Dhawan.

"One moment it was quite even and to pick it back from there was a team effort. It was important we stay positive as a team. I knew their batting isn't deep and if we got their top-order we can get them," the veteran opener said.

Dhawan was all praise for his pacers Kagiso Rabada, the top wicket-taker in the IPL with 18 wickets, and his South African teammate Anrich Nortje -- the fastest bowler in world cricket currently.

"Every time, we want them to deliver they are delivering," Dhawan said.

He also praised debutant Tushar Deshpande, who took 2-37, and bowled a superb last over conceding just eight runs.

"He showed courage. The line and length he bowled was amazing. We have to keep the momentum. It's a long tournament. We will keep the process going," Dhawan said.

Royals captain Steve Smith pointed out the slowness of the track being one of the reasons for the defeat.

"It was disappointing. The wicket slowed up a bit as the game went on. We got off to a good start with Jos (Buttler) and (Ben Stokes) Stokesy, then we lost a couple wickets and got another partnership between Stokesy and Sanju (Samson), then again lost wickets in clumps and on slow wickets it is hard to make up too many runs at the back-end," Smith said.

"We needed to take it a bit deeper from some of our batters and we were not able to do that. We thought we bowled well at the back-end and restricted them to 160-odd, that was probably around par on this wicket," the Royals skipper said.

© Copyright 2024 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.