IPL 2020: For Delhi Capitals, Rabada and Nortje's bowling partnership is lethal, says Shikhar Dhawan

After registering a thrilling 13-run victory over Rajasthan Royals`, Delhi Capitals' opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan hailed the bowling performance of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje, calling the duo`s partnership as "lethal".

Rajasthan Royals failed to chase down 162 as the side was restricted to 148/8. For Delhi Capitals, Tushar Deshpande and Anrich Nortje scalped two wickets each. With this win, Shreyas Iyer-led Delhi Capitals went to the top of the points table.Deshpande also bowled the final over as Rajasthan needed 22 runs and the seamer just conceded 9 runs, to give Delhi a comfortable victory. This was Despande`s first match in this year`s IPL. On the other hand, Rabada finished with the figures of 1-28 from his four overs.

"Nortje and Rabada are great bowlers, Rabada is a legend, when they both bowl as a partnership, it is lethal, they have been taking early wickets and when we bring them back during the death overs, we know they will do the job, we are fortunate to have this class of bowling, spinners also have been doing their job. Everyone is performing and that is a sign of a good team," said Dhawan during the post-match press conference.

"Tushar Despande was amazing, especially under such amount of pressure, we got him in and he responded nicely, he got the crucial wicket of Stokes, he kept his cool, he has been working really hard in the nets, in the last over, he was clear in his plans, really happy to see him do so well. Till 10th over, both the teams were equal and they were right up there in the chase. We talked about getting positive energy going, we knew if we got wickets at the top of the order, then we can come back in the match," he added.

Batting first, Delhi Capitals had posted a total of 161/7 in the allotted twenty overs as Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer played knocks of 57 and 53 respectively.For Rajasthan Royals, Jofra Archer returned with the best bowling figures as he finished with 3-19 in his quota of four overs. Archer got the wickets of Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, and Marcus Stoinis, and Delhi was reduced to 10/2 at one stage."My mindset was to play positive cricket only, I did not play Archer much as I was in the other end, it was important to score runs in the first six overs, we kept two wickets early but still we kept the courage and we kept on going," said Dhawan.

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"It was a conscious effort as the wicket was slow, we knew we had to cash in the first six overs, I still feel we were 10-15 runs short looking at the way we were poised in the 12th over, I am glad we ended up winning the game," he added.Delhi Capitals will next take on Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on October 17 while Rajasthan Royals will lock horns with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on the same day.