Rishabh Pant was appointed the captain of Delhi Capitals for the season after their usual captain Shreyas Iyer was ruled out of injury.
Pant’s first assignment was against his mentor MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings.
Pant returned with a win, thanks to his teammates, who stood up for the team, right from ball one. Avesh Khan and Chris Woakes did the early damage with the ball but CSK bounced back to score 188, thanks to Suresh Raina’s fifty.
What followed was Shaw and Dhawan show as the openers got the team a great start with 138-run partnership. Then the team went on to win with ease.
“It always feels good when you get the win in the end. In the middle phase, I was under some pressure. But Avesh and Tom (Curran) did well in the middle to restrict them to 188.
“Actually, it was special for me captaining in IPL and toss with MS. I have learnt from him and he’s my go-to man,” Pant said.
We were thinking as to what we will do without Nortje and Rabada and I thought we had to do with the options we have. No, there was no effort for the NRR as it is still early stages in the tournament. Prithvi and Shikhar did well for us in the powerplay. They kept it simple and played some good cricketing shots,” Pant added.
Vale, Professor Deano | Dean Jones