Axar Patel has been in top form both on and off the field. The all-rounder has been the shining light so far in an otherwise not-so-hunky-dory campaign for the Delhi Capitals in IPL 2023. Axar’s impressive performance with both bat and ball has also rubbed on his mood away from the field. The left-arm spinner, who has been in top form with the bat too, has been laughing and making others smile in almost all of his post-match interactions be it with the broadcasters or the reporters. Axar’s mood and performance have finally started to show results for DC as the Delhi-based franchise registered consecutive wins after five straight defeats to stay alive in the race to the play-offs.
DC beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by seven runs in a low-scoring match at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Hyderabad and it was largely due to Axar Pate’s all-round brilliance. Coming in to bat when DC were in a spot of bother at 62 for 5, the left-hander stitched a priceless 79-run stand with Manish Pandey to help the visitors post a respectable 144/9.
Axar shed his natural attacking style and decided to dig deep with Manish Pandey. He scored a run-a-ball 34 while Pandey scored 34 off 27 balls. After the match, the DC vice-captain revealed that he had to leave his coffee in the dressing room and come running out in the middle when three wickets fell in one over.
“I had no clue, I ordered coffee and I left the glass like that when I learned that three wickets have fallen in one over. I came running into the ground and then started thinking about what to do,” Axar said with a smile in the post-match presentation.
DC lost captain David Warner, Sarfaraz Khan and Aman Khan in the 8th over of the match to off-spinner Washinton Sundar. “Pandey and I discussed we need to take it as deep as possible,” he said.
After another flop show with the bat, DC bowlers came out firing and Axar once again stood out with 2 for 21. The left-arm spinner said the pitch was a bit slow hence he would rate his 34 runs higher than his two wickets with the ball.
“2/21 happened because I scored 34 in 34 so the runs were more important,” Axar said when asked about his all-round show. “It was slow (surface), the ball was coming off slowly. I felt that I and Kuldeep can tie up the batters on this surface, we have bowled well in partnerships before so it was enjoyable. (Whose wicket did he enjoy more, Mayank’s or Markram’s?) I keep getting wickets in the form of knocking over batters but getting a wicket off the slower one (Mayank’s wicket) was more enjoyable,” he said.
