David Warner-led Delhi Capitals suffered their fourth consecutive loss against Rohit Sharma’s Mumbai Indians in match 17 of the IPL 2023 played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. The visitors got over the line by seven wickets while chasing a target of 173. Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma was the star of the chase and scored 65 runs off 45 balls at a strike rate of 144.44 with six fours and four sixes. Ishan Kishan and Tilak Varma also contributed to the team’s win with knocks of 31 and 41 respectively.
Batting first in the match, Delhi Capitals scored a total of 172 with the fifties from Axar Patel and captain David Warner. Warner played an innings of 51 runs off 47 balls with a strike rate of 108.51 which included six fours. No other batsman except Axar and the DC captain was able to stay at the crease and got out cheaply on low scores.
Axar Patel who gave the much-needed boost to the DC’s innings has been among the top batsmen of the team but till now is yet to get a constant batting position. Axar was asked about his batting position during the post-match press interaction. The left-handed all-rounder came up with an epic reaction to the question.
DC vs MI: Axar Patel’s savage response to Delhi teammates
Axar Patel said, “I’m playing 10-12 overs irrespective of whether I bat higher up the order at No.7. It all looks the same to me and hence I’m not complaining much. Even when I bat at No.4, I think 10-12 overs are enough for me in a T20 game. On a serious note, we have a lot of domestic batters who can play spin really well. If I start batting higher up the order then who will play the role of a finisher? What if I get out early then we won’t get whatever push we are getting at the end. So it is a difficult choice and as I said, I am anyway batting 10-12 overs”.
Axar Patel further said that representing the Indian team has given him confidence. “No, not only against Australia. I scored against Sri Lanka earlier but the main thing is that I have been playing for India in all three formats regularly, which gives me a lot of confidence”, Axar said.
