Dubai: Harshal Patel, a seasoned allrounder who is trying to seal the spot as the fifth bowler for the high-flying Delhi Capitals, reveals his team is taking one match at a time and not thinking too far ahead in the tournament.
With eight points from their five matches so far, Shreyas Iyer’s Capitals look poised to have a top-of-the table clash with Mumbai Indians on Sunday, but the captain of Haryana state team says his team is focused on performance in each match and don’t want to look too far ahead. “It’s too early to talk about the Mumbai Indians game, because we have one more match (against Rajasthan) before that and the points table is always going to be dynamic. All we have to focus on as a team is how we are preparing and how we’re executing our skills on the field. And if we take care of that aspect, then the points table is going to take care of itself,” said Patel.
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The 29-year-old, for whom this is the second IPL franchise after he spent five seasons with Royal Challengers Bangalore, has taken 45 wickets from as many matches in IPL at an economy rate of 8.77. His skiddy medium pace can often be a good weapon on the UAE wickets and he did a decent job with figures of 2-34 against KKR in his first match and 0-43 against RCB in his second,
Looking ahead at their sixth match against Royals at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Friday, Patel told the Capitals website: “I think every team in the IPL is extremely competitive, and that’s why the quality of cricket is unparalleled. So when it comes to players like Jos Buttler, Steve Smith or (Sanju) Samson, you just have to focus on executing your skill. You do the planning in your team meetings and when you get onto the field – it’s all about execution.”
Everyone who’s been around in the IPL knows that the second half of IPL is one of the most difficult parts of the tournament. So we don’t want to get complacent, don’t want to relax – we just want to keep our focus and try to get better by putting in the efforts
Commenting on what his team has been focusing on improving ahead of their Royals clash, Harshal said they want to ensure that small mistakes are closed out. “We’re just talking about how we can get better – even though the last game we put on quite a clinical performance but the conversation has always been around what else we can do to get better, what else we can do to close out the small mistakes that we’re making.”
“Everyone who’s been around in the IPL knows that the second half of IPL is one of the most difficult parts of the tournament. So we don’t want to get complacent, don’t want to relax – we just want to keep our focus and try to get better by putting in the efforts,” added the right arm medium pacer.
Having been a part of a high-scoring encounter at Sharjah already, Harshal reckoned the margin for error will again be very little on Friday. “Whenever you’re playing in a high-scoring game, you just have to be on top of your game all 24 balls that you bowl. The margin for error is very little, and at the same time you know that it’s going to be a high-scoring game – so it does take a little bit of pressure off of you, because you know everybody’s going to go for runs.”
“So you can be a little more relaxed in terms of your approach towards the game and just focus on executing whatever the batsman does – if he hits you off a good length, then you just have to accept that and move on,” Patel added.
