Kuldeep, Fraser-McGurk and Pant join forces to lift Capitals out of last spot
Delhi Capitals, on a run of four defeats in five before the game, ended Lucknow Super Giants' stranglehold on 160-plus defences
Delhi Capitals, on a run of four defeats in five before the game, ended Lucknow Super Giants' stranglehold on 160-plus defences
Scorer: @Thilak_Rama | Commentator: Shashank Kishore
Thanks for joining us. It's the first win on the road for DC. From Himanshu, Thilak and myself, Shashank, it's a very goodnight. Take care and see you soon.
11.11pm A look of relief on Ponting's face. Ganguly can afford a smile. Pant is a little more animated. This has been a comfortable win.
Capitals had LSG in tatters courtesy a magical Kuldeep spell, before their bowling came a cropper in the death against unheralded Ayush Badoni and Arshad Khan. Chasing a lot more than they looked like at one stage, they lost Warner early, but Frazer-McGurk on debut and Pant played superb knocks to take the sting out of LSG.
Kuldeep Yadav is the PoM for 3 for 20. "Wasn't fit for a couple of games, got injured in the first game. Was difficult to see the team struggle in the middle overs. Credit to Patrick for maintaining me. All those were good wickets, when you get three in the middle overs and control the run rate as well as chasing target, it's good. I liked the first wicket, played a lot against Pooran. Execution was right, that was a good ball. I was clear with my plan, length matters a lot as a spinner. Irrespective of format good length is good length."
Rishabh Pant: Relieved. Told boys we need to think like champions, keep fighting hard. There have been phases where we've not been upto the mark with the ball but some individuals have to take responsibility. We have to stick together as a team. Problem we had is so many injuries in the camp. With 10 teams, difficult to get players. We can either make an excuse or learn. Most probably [we've found our No. 3], haven't thought a lot yet. Take it one match at a time.
Jake Frazer-McGurk: Spent five-six games on the sidelines itching to get out there, stoked! Was just more about trying not to swing too hard and lose shape. That's what I've done over the last 12 months. I loved the one over cover, pretty happy with that. Don't usually hit many over the off-side. Batting out of the powerplay is something am contiuing to learn, it'll come with experience. I'm so happy to be here, different world in terms of cricket. Never seen anything like it, to be able to savour eight weeks, hopefully more, is amazing.
KL Rahul: We were 15-20 short, should've capitalised to get 180. There was a bit of help for seamers, odd-ball was keeping low and Kuldeep put the brakes on our batting group. We fought till the end. McGurk, the new guys when they come in, was very unknown. We've watched a lot of videos of him but he hit the ball really well, credit to him. We walked in with the same kind of mindset, assess what the good areas, what pace works on this wicket and execute as well as we can. We got Warner, and a couple after the powerplay. We were in the game till the 10th over, then a drop catch and then Rishabh-McGurk took it away from us. In hindsight, can wonder if we could've done something differently [with Pooran's batting position]. Not much spin for Axar, so I thought Nicky P with the shots he has can put the opposition under pressure. We knew they had to bowl their spinners in that phase. Mayank is not too bad, he looks good, feeling good but we also want to make sure we don't rush him back in too early. He's young, we need to protect his body. He's itching to go, we just have to pull him back a little, maybe a couple of more games, before he comes back.
Deb: "And DC is officially team of pocket dynamites"
Ajay: "LSG attack sorely missing the extra pace of Mayank Yadav tonight "
Kuldeep's wrong'un to dismiss Pooran for duck changed the course of an entire match
Delhi Capitals, on a run of four defeats in five before the game, ended Lucknow Super Giants' stranglehold on 160-plus defences
Mohsin Khan is back bowling in the nets, and Langer expects him to be fit for LSG's game against KKR on Sunday
DC have just one win in five matches; LSG are coming into this contest having won their last three matches