“The best thing about Pant is his presence of mind and his ability to stay calm, which is very good,” Dhawan said at the post-match virtual press conference on Saturday night.
Rishabh Pant; (right) Shikhar Dhawan en route his 85 v CSK on Saturday. Pics/BCCI; IPL
Delhi Capitals opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan, who scored a match-winning 85 in the seven-wicket win over MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday, was all praise for his team’s new skipper, Rishabh Pant.
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“The best thing about Pant is his presence of mind and his ability to stay calm, which is very good,” Dhawan said at the post-match virtual press conference on Saturday night.
Dhawan’s 138-run stand with fellow opener Prithvi Shaw (72 off 38 balls) helped DC chase down CSK’s 188-7 in the 19th over. “He [Pant] did quite well. First of all, we’re glad that he won the toss. It was a sticky wicket, so it was good for us to bat second. Then, Rishabh kept his calm and kept on motivating the boys and brought about some good [bowling] changes as well.
“It was his first match [as captain in the IPL] and I’m sure he will only get more refined with the experience he’s getting here. He can only get better,” said Dhawan, 35, who played some effective sweep shots against the seamers during his 54-ball knock that included 10 fours and two sixes.
“I began playing those [sweep] shots during practice because I never play new shots directly in a match. It’s important to play your shots keeping in mind the
fielding positions. I knew that Chennai would keep their square leg and fine leg up and push the cover fielder to the boundary ropes against me. So, I had to just get the ball over those fielders,” added Dhawan as he also went on to praise Shaw for his quickfire knock and the team’s bowling effort.
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