Vice-captain Axar Patel on Tuesday rescued Delhi Capitals (DC) from a precarious situation with his maiden IPL fifty at Arun Jaitley Stadium. Put to bat first by Mumbai Indians, DC lost half of their men within 13 overs. Skipper David Warner was battling alone in what was a challenging Kotla track while wickets kept falling at the other end.
At 98/5, after Lalit Yadav was cleaned up by Piyush Chawla, Axar joined Warner in the middle and amplified the DC innings with a barrage of boundaries and sixes. The all-rounder smashed 5 maximums and 4 fours to bring up his maiden IPL half-century, off just 22 balls. But once he was dismissed, the Delhi lower-order bit the dust.
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Delhi Capitals lost 5 wickets in the last 12 balls of the innings, adding just seven runs to the board. Axar fell for 54, followed by Warner (51), Kuldeep Yadav (0), Abhishek Porel (1), and Anrich Nortje (5) ac DC posted 172 in 20 overs.
Unfortunately, Axar’s maiden fifty went in vain as Mumbai managed to finish the chase successfully, riding on Rohit Sharma’s first half-century of the season. While MI found their first set of points in the tally, Delhi suffered their 4th defeat in a row, which is now their second-worst start to a season since six straight losses in 2013.
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Responding to a News18 Cricketnext query about the lower-order collapse, Axar said he should have played a bit more wisely instead of going for a big shot and ending up getting caught.
“I think, it was my fault as well. Had I been a bit cautious about my shot, I would have added some more runs to the scoreboard. My flow was such that I thought going for a big shot would put pressure on the bowler," Axar told Cricketnext
“It was difficult for the tail-enders to get going right away in this kind of pitch. It’s not necessary that you have to smash a four or a boundary. Rather, take time and deal in singles. We lost 5 wickets in 7 runs but that could’ve been 11 runs off as many deliveries," he added.
He has been terrific with the bat in hand in the last couple of months and that has added to his list of qualities coming to the IPL.
But does he need to be promoted up in the order, given the struggle of other players in the line-up?
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Well, Axar’s response left everyone around in splits. In fact, the all-rounder himself took some time to get normal and speak to the reporters.
“Be it up the order or at no. 7, I play at least 10-12 overs. So I find it no different. But if you look at our batting line-up, the domestic players are playing well against spin. And if I bat up the order, there is a thinking that if I get out early then who would finish the games?
“Rest as I said, 10-12 over to main khel hi raha hun (I’m anyway playing 10-12 overs)," Axar added.
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