IPL 2020 | Wanted to bowl at stumps and vary the pace, reveals Axar Patel

Aided by Marcus Stoinis’s 26-ball 53, Delhi Capitals reached the score of 196/4, which is also the highest total made by them against RCB. Prithivi Shaw with his 23-ball 42 was impeccable at the top, getting his team off to a flyer, and Mohammed Siraj was the pick of the bowlers for RCB, picking 2 wickets for 32 runs. 

Chasing a target pf 197, RCB lost early wickets in the form of in-form Devdutt Padikkal for 4(6), Aaron Finch 13(14), and AB de Villiers for 9(6). Virat Kohli tried to resurrect the innings with a 39-ball 43 but saw wickets tumbling at the other end, which made him swing wild on a good ball of Kagiso Rabada, resulting in his demise. RCB never looked in control of the chase as Delhi bowlers dominated the whole innings with disciplined bowling, consistently hitting the right mark. For Delhi, Kagiso Rabada starred with the bowl, finishing with the figures of 4/24 along with Axar Patel, who took 2 wickets for 18 runs. In the end, Delhi won the match by 59 runs.

Axar Patel, who was awarded the Man of the Match for his economical bowling, revealed that his plan was to hit the stumps and vary his pace, after speaking with his fellow batsmen. 

"I knew it was stopping on the wicket. I knew I would bowl in the powerplay and I had practiced for it as well. I think I executed my plans really well. My plan after speaking to batsmen was that since the wicket was slow, I wanted to bowl at the stumps and vary the pace. In the powerplay I was in a mood to defend at first, but when the third ball spun I changed gears and got into an attack mode," Axar said after receiving the Man of the Match award.

Axar finished with figures of 2/18. The left-armer's impeccable display with the ball has seen his maintain an economy rate of 4.57 in IPL 2020 after five games.