After registering a six-wicket win over Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant gave an insight into his leadership style and how he has benefitted from having Ricky Ponting as the head coach.
Leg-spinner Amit Mishra spun a web over Mumbai Indians before Shikhar Dhawan and Steve Smith played knocks of 45 and 33 respectively as Delhi Capitals registered a win at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Tuesday. Mishra had picked four wickets to help Delhi Capitals restrict Mumbai Indians to 137/9.
"I think, yes, as a wicketkeeper I keep on reading the game and it helps me a lot. With seniors around and Ricky Ponting in our management, I think my captaincy is going great," said Rishabh while replying to an ANI query during a virtual press conference.
Delhi played its first three games in Mumbai and then the side has moved to Chennai to play its next set of matches. When asked about the difficulty of travelling in such times, Pant said: "I think it's slightly challenging because of COVID. But as a team, we are not focusing on outside things. BCCI has done really well to give us a good bubble and travelling thing.
"So we are focussing more on cricket and it is good to see people adjusting to the pitch like this, especially when you are coming from the Wankhede,” Pant said at the post-match press conference.
Delhi promoted all-rounder Lalit Yadav and Pant said the team management is trying to groom him.
"He (Lalit) is a good youngster and we are trying to groom him and we thought on this kind of wicket, he can do wonders. Yes, good to see some maturity from him,” the skipper noted.
Delhi Capitals needed 15 runs in the last two overs and Shimron Hetmyer and Lalit Yadav ensured the side didn't falter at the end. Moreover, Jasprit Bumrah's two no-balls in the penultimate over made the job a lot easier for the batsmen.
"As a player, you do not focus much on match-ups. And as you can see they bowled him (Bumrah) because they have to bowl him at that time, there was no other option and I had to go for my shots because we were chasing. So you need to focus more on scenarios as compared to matchups," said Pant.
"We were thinking to bat first also so I do not think Rohit's decision to bat first was a bad one," he added.
Mumbai Indians were cruising towards a mammoth total having scored 55 runs in the first six overs against Delhi but Mishra wreaked havoc and dismantled the batting order removing Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, and Ishan Kishan.
