Countering Siraj was the key, we’re looking like a good team now: Warner

PTI, May 7, 2023, 10:04 AM IST

Delhi Capitals skipper David Warner on Saturday said his team was wearing the look of a winning unit after the seven-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL, and that the strategy was to target the rivals’ pace ace Mohammed Siraj and just ”take him on”.

The home team scored a thumping win against RCB at the Feroz Shah Kotla with England cricketer Phil Salt playing a fiery innings of 87 runs and middle-order batter Rilee Rossouw chipping in with an unbeaten 35.

Chasing 182 for victory, Delhi Capitals achieved the target for the loss of three wickets with 20 balls to spare.

Countering Siraj was the key and both Warner and Salt went after the RCB pace spearhead from the word go, smashing him for 28 runs in two overs. Siraj never came back to bowl his full quota.

”It was absolutely amazing. I thought 180 was possible (gettable score). The ball started skidding on nicely,” Warner, who scored 22 and shared a 60-run partnership with Salt, said at the post-match presentation.

”We said from the outset that we wanted to try and target Siraj. That was our intention. We knew he has been bowling really well and been their backbone so if we could just take him on, it would work in our favour.” The DC skipper also praised veteran pacer Ishant Sharma for restricting the Bengaluru outfit to a chaseable total.

”Credit to the bowlers. They have been brilliant. They defended 130 twice. We have a strong Indian bowling unit with Ishant (Sharma) and Khaleel (Ahmed). And we are looking like a good team now.” ‘Player of the Match’ Salt, who smashed his highest score of the season, said he never takes the foot off the pedal once he gets going.

”We spoke about taking them on. We saw how good they were in Bangalore when they had their tails up. Something that’s a real strength of mine is that if I really get going I don’t take my foot off the pedal too often.” South African middle-order batter Rossouw said his team played with a lot of ”freedom” knowing well that losing another match could end their hopes in this edition of the IPL. He also said that it was a tricky wicket to bat on, but Salt played an amazing innings on a difficult pitch to win it for Capitals.

”It’s been amazing. It was a pretty tricky pitch. It was very slow and it was gripping, it was turning. I think Salt put in a blinder in the first six otherwise it was a tough wicket.

”We can’t lose another game so we are going out with the freedom to play the way we want to. Just keep going as far as possible and who knows, we get lucky and make the playoffs.” RCB captain Faf du Plessis, said DC batters put his bowlers under a lot of pressure, forcing them to make mistakes.

”We have to give credit to their batters, they played really well. The pressure their batters put on the spinners led to some mistakes. They made our bowlers sit back a little bit after the powerplay. They pretty much broke the back of the chase in the first six, the way they were going.”