XtraTime Web Desk: What meant to be an entertaining contest between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Delhi Capitals (DC) eventually turned out to be a one sided affair with DC cruising to a 59 runs win at the Dubai International Stadium on Monday. It was a clinical effort from Shreyas Iyer led Delhi Capital’s with contributions from everyone. Delhi Capital’s spin spearhead Ravichandran Ashwin sounded confident with the bench strength of the squad and reckon that will hold in good stead moving ahead in the tournament.
“Look, that’s one of the beauty of this particular Delhi Capitals side because even when my shoulder was dislocated, Amit (Mishra) came and played the role, now he’s injured and Axar has come in and played the role. So, there is enough strength in that bench and sometimes when it comes to the IPL, the bench people coming off the bench becomes very, very important and that bench is probably enough to become another IPL team as well. He’s got that sort of quality, so I think Amit would be dearly missed in this team. He’s a legend in the IPL. Moving forward, we will definitely try and keep Amit happy at home,” said Ashwin during the post match conference.
Ashwin was pleased with DC’s team-work, with ‘everyone’ making a contribution. The experienced off-spinner also had a good outing, giving away just 26 runs from his quota of four overs.
“I think we’ve got a pretty good side and everybody is putting their hands up. I thought initially we were a bit rusty getting into the tournament and even for me, it’s been like five games to get my first four overs out. It’s been quite an interesting year. Came here charged up and got off to a splendid start. I’ve bowled four overs for the first time today, so interesting and everybody is chipping in. I still think the biggest positive is a lot of room for improvement is still there and I think we will get it at the back end of the tournament,” he added.
Ashwin also complimented Axar Patel for his fine show in the game against RCB.
“He always goes under the radar because he bowls those good overs, builds the pressure for someone else to capitalize on the wickets, so these are the heroes who get really appreciated inside the dressing room for us in Delhi Capitals and Ricky is very particular on that and we stick to the roles. When you get appreciated, people would want to hold onto their roles.”