Amidst Delhi Capitals’ opening woes with the bat, compounded by Faf du Plessis’ injury, the young Abishek Porel has emerged as a bright spot at the top of the order.
Opening the batting for the fourth time this season, he guided DC to an eight-wicket win against Lucknow Super Giants with his first fifty of this Indian Premier League (IPL) edition.
Porel, who scored a two-ball duck in DC’s season opener against the same opposition, credited the backing from senior players and support staff for his turnaround.
“The support staff has asked me to play with freedom and not take tension. After I scored a zero in the first game, the captain [Axar Patel], KP [Kevin Pietersen], and KL Rahul – they all backed me. It is very motivating for a player when senior players are backing you, even if you aren’t backing yourself,” he said.
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The 22-year-old heaped praise on his Bengal teammate Mukesh Kumar, who picked a career-best 4/33 to put the skids on LSG after it got off to a flying start.
“I have known Mukesh from domestic cricket for the last three to four years. He backs his strengths, and he is a very hard-working person who practises his yorkers a lot,” Porel added.
Queer the pitch
Meanwhile, LSG assistant coach Vijay Dahiya refused to blame the red-soil pitch at the Ekana Stadium after the host’s third defeat in five games at home.
“We had more than 80 runs on the board in nine overs. We lost momentum from there. Delhi Capitals’ bowlers also assessed conditions very well. When the ball was stopping in the wicket a bit, they used the cutters to good effect and made a very good comeback,” he admitted.
All three of LSG’s losses at home this season have come on red-soil pitches, while the black-soil variant has produced two wins in two games for the host. Following Lucknow’s defeat to Punjab Kings in the first match of the season at this venue, the host’s mentor Zaheer Khan had even hit out at the curator for not helping the home team gain any home advantage.
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“I think maybe it looked like, you know, it was Punjab curator out here,” he had quipped.
LSG’s third defeat at home on Tuesday was also marred by poor tactical decisions, including skipper Rishabh Pant’s call to demote himself to No. 7, a position the southpaw has batted at only once before in the IPL, back in 2016.
Dahiya said the move wasn’t pre-decided and the plan was to have David Miller up the ante after the fall of two wickets in quick succession.
“In T20 cricket, the only plan is to have many plans. Nothing is pre-decided. We were behind the game a bit. If David Miller had been a bit more attacking, we could have made a comeback,” he explained.