Left-handed batsman Shikhar Dhawan was a pleased man after his maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) ton helped Delhi Capitals in beating Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Saturday in the ongoing edition of the cash-rich tournament.
Delhi Capitals rode on the brilliance of Shikhar Dhawan, who scored his maiden hundred (101 off 58 deliveries), and Axar Patel’s fiery innings of 21 runs, all of which came in the last over of.
Chasing 180, Delhi Capitals kept losing regular wickets. But Dhawan’s fiery knock at the other end made sure that they were never behind the required rate.
“I am very happy that after 13 years, I was able to score an IPL hundred. I was getting scores of 80s and 90s earlier. But I am glad that my maiden IPL hundred helped the team win while chasing,” Dhawan told Patel in an interview for iplt20.com.
During the course of his innings, the left-handed batsman showed why he remains Team India’s first choice white-ball opener. It was a single-handed effort till the 19th over.
“The wicket was slow and tricky. But after 13-14 overs, there was dew which made batting a little bit easier. Good thing for us was that after losing a couple of wickets in the initial overs, we didn’t lose any further wicket and kept the scoreboard ticking. And when the dew settled in, CSK spinners found it difficult to grip which worked in our favour,” he added.
Following the wicket of Alex Carey, out came Axar Patel and smacked three sixes off Ravindra Jadeja in the last over and ensured Dhawan’s maiden IPL century didn’t go in vain.
Axar also talked about his batting plan and said: “I entered the field with a mindset of see the ball, hit the ball. However, I was not focussed on hitting the ball hard, all I tried was to time it and thankfully it happened.”
Courtesy their efforts, Capitals are now placed at the top of the points table with 14 points from nine matches