DC vs RCBSense of clarity in batting group helping Delhi win games, says Phil Salt

By India Today Sports DeskDelhi Capitals defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday, 6 May at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. The bottom-placed team (formerly) in the Indian Premier League, Delhi put on a show in front of their home crowd, notching up their most dominating victory in the 2023 season. At the heart of the win was England batter Phil Salt, who smashed his way to 87 runs of just 45 balls and put DC in a winning position. Delhi have now won four out of their five matches, a stark contrast to their fortunes in the early days of the tournament.

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Speaking in the press conference after the game, Salt said that it was clarity as a batting group that was helping Delhi Capitals do well. The player of the match against RCB started by saying that Delhi bowlers had done a good job but the batters had failed to back it up till now.

“I know that if I go out there and put the pressure back on the bowlers and I get off to a good start, then it makes it easier for the next batter to have a good start, which means that our batting unit is a lot more likely to win,” Salt said in the post match press conference.

The batter spoke about the need to be a bit more proactive and how that helped the rest of the batters to come in and get runs.

“You know with that style of play when you do score runs, more often than not, you’ve got a much better chance of winning your team the game,” Salt spoke about the brand of aggressive cricket and its highs and lows.

Speaking about the season, Salt said that Delhi sat down as a group and figured out the rights and wrongs during their losing streak and worked on becoming more aggressive.

“After a few games, sort of a conscious review between everybody – what are we doing right, what have we done well and what could we improve on. With the batting group, throwing the first punches, throwing the pressure back on to the bowling side was a major talking point… It was a result of that little chat – what’s working, what isn’t that’s given us clarity, which means that we’ve gone over there and played with freedom,” Salt told the media with a lot of clarity of thought.

“The message that sends back to the dressing room or in the dugout is one that you can come and [do it too],” Salt further added.

Delhi’s win got them out of the bottom position in the league table. The team has four more matches to play in the IPL and will need to win all those to have a shot at the playoffs.