IPL 2022: DC skipper Rishabh Pant explains how his team maintained focus against PBKS during Covid-19 crisis

A sixth positive in the Delhi Capitals camp on the morning of the game created a lot of confusion and nervousness but the team made a conscious effort to shut out the outside noise and focus on the match, said skipper Rishabh Pant after the nine-wicket win over Punjab Kings.

The cloud over the IPL game was lifted an hour before toss time after the BCCI confirmed that the match will go on despite a sixth COVID positive case being reported in the Delhi camp on game day.

“There was a lot of confusion, because we learnt of the positive test in the morning (Tim Seifert). We were a bit nervous and there were talks of the game getting cancelled. But we spoke as a team that we must purely focus on the match,” Pant said at the post-match presentation.

David Warner and Prithvi Shaw were in devastating form, firing the team to a big win after a brilliant bowling effort that restricted Punjab to 115. The skipper said that he never tries to give the duo any unsolicited advice.

“Mostly, I like to leave them (Warner and Shaw) alone because they know their roles. Delhi Capitals has to go through every game. Results are not in our control, but we have to give everything in our games.

“On a wicket like this, after one or two overs, I saw the ball was stopping a bit and I thought I should use more spin. I thought 150 would be a good enough score to stop them at,” said Pant.

For Punjab, it was a game to forget.

“It is a tough one. We did not bat or bowl well, we have to put this behind. Losing too many wickets too early, but I do not want to dig too deep as the more we do it, the more negatives that will come out. 180 was a decent score but we were well short of that. In hindsight, I could have given the spinners an over or two but did not at the time,” said skipper Mayank Agarwal.