Delhi Capitals will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in the IPL on Friday.
Follow Us
High-flying Delhi Capitals will be keen to end the league phase of the VIVO IPL 2021 season on a positive note when they take on Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Friday. Delhi’s South African pacer Kagiso Rabada has urged his team that they shouldn’t take their foot off the pedal despite confirming a top-two finish. The Delhi franchise has bagged 20 points from 13 matches by winning 10 and losing only thrice so far in this edition.
“It’s been a great season. We’ve given ourselves another chance to play for a spot in the final, so we are thrilled by that. Even though the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore doesn’t hold a lot of significance for us we should not take our foot off the pedal. We should just keep playing the way we have been playing,” said the South African, according to a Delhi Capitals’ press release.
Rabada was asked if Delhi Capitals will be thinking about their loss against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first half of the tournament. He replied, “Our loss against RCB in the first half of the tournament is definitely a thing of the past. However, we know how threatening they can be. They have some really destructive batters and Harshal Patel has been doing extremely well. We need to believe in our strengths. The result in our last match against RCB is a thing of the past, but we still need to learn from that result.”
The fast bowler added that the team will look to play its best cricket at the business end of the tournament. He added: “We’ve done really great work so far. We have earned the right to be in this position and we have been in this position before, which helps. We are going to give it our all in the upcoming matches and look to play our best cricket in the business end of the tournament.”
Rabada found himself in an unexpected position in the Delhi Capitals’ most recent match against the Chennai Super Kings, when he needed to finish the game with the bat. The fast bowler discussed the thoughts that went through his mind before guiding the team home through a boundary. He explained, “It wasn’t the most ideal situation, but I backed myself to put the team in a winning position when we needed 2 runs from 3 balls, by at least getting Hetmyer on strike. I tried to watch the ball and anticipate where Bravo was going to bowl. I just wanted to get bat on ball and that worked for us.”
Pacer Anrich Nortje had recently described his experience of working with head coach Ricky Ponting in a positive way. Nortje said, “It’s great having Ricky Ponting in our camp. I love his chats and he breaks things down very nicely and makes everything easy to understand. He’s quite clear on what he wants. I am trying to learn as much as possible from him. We enjoy working with him and hopefully, we can grow as a unit with him.”
When asked if he has shared some tricks of the trade with young fast bowler Avesh Khan, the South African said, “Some of us have been looking at how Avesh is landing his yorkers and how he has been going about things. He has been so good for us. It was especially nice to see him land his yorkers in the first half of the season in India. It’s been so nice to see him progress as a bowler. All in all, he has got a lot of skill and I think he has got a bright future ahead of him.”
