DC skipper Rishabh Pant happy after trumping mentor Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Mumbai, April 11

Rishabh Pant, who captained Delhi Capitals for the first time last night and led the team to victory over former champions Chennai Super Kings, was ecstatic after the win. He said it was wonderful to walk out to toss with CSK captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, whom he called his “go-to man”.

Chasing 189 for victory, DC romped to a seven-wicket victory with eight balls to spare after Shikhar Dhawan (85) and Prithvi Shaw (72) struck blistering half-centuries.

“It was special for me captaining in IPL and walking out for toss with MS. I have learnt from him and he’s my go-to man,” Pant said.

Pace bowlers Chris Woakes and Avesh Khan ensured DC did not miss their first-choice pace duo of Kagiso Rabada and Andre Nortje, who are in quarantine after arriving from South Africa. “It was good, once you win the match everything is good. In the middle phase, I was under pressure, but good job from Avesh and the bowlers,” said Pant. “We were thinking as to what we will do without Nortje and Rabada and I thought we had to do with the options we have. We thought whatever we have we have to work around this and put the best playing XI. We just wanted to finish the match before one over, we didn’t think about the run-rate.”

Unhappy Dhoni

CSK captain Dhoni said his bowlers will have to pull up their socks after a “poor” outing. “We could have bowled slightly better, and if batters are hitting you over the field, that’s fair enough,” said the captain, who failed to score and was dismissed off the second ball he faced. “The execution of the bowlers was poor and there were boundary balls that they bowled, but the bowlers will have learned and they will apply that in the future games.”

“A lot depended on dew, and that factor played on our mind from the start and that’s why we wanted to get as many runs as possible,” Dhoni added. “The batters did a good job to reach 188, because it was tricky until dew settled in 50 minutes later. The opposition have half an hour advantage in a 7:30 start, when the pitch is really tricky and the ball stops a bit, so we need to get 15-20 runs extra to be safe. If we get dew consistently, then 200 will be a must on a pitch like this.” — TNS, Agencies