Mukesh Kumar happy to justify his price tag for Delhi Capitals

It was a surprise buy when Delhi Capitals splashed a hefty Rs 5.5 crores ($ US 670,000 approx) for Mukesh Kumar, the feisty Bengal paceman in the last IPL mini auction in Kochi. Kumar, however, justified the franchise’s faith when he held his nerves to bowl a tight final over against Sunrisers Hyderabad and close out the game by seven runs on Monday.

A disastrous start in IPL 2023, where they lost their first five games on the trot, meant Delhi were still languishing at the 10^th spot alongwith Sunrisers and Kolkata Knight Riders with only two wins from seven games. The 2020 runners-up now have a good chance to drive in the home advantage when they take on the Orange Army again in the second leg, this time at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi on Saturday.

‘’I always dreamt of winning a match for Delhi Capitals in the last over and that's what I tried to do. I wanted to make full use of the opportunity when I was told that I would bowl the last over. I held my nerve and focused on my target,’’ said the 29-year-old. ‘’Mukesh there under pressure was absolutely amazing and our two spinners were great,’’ said a relieved skipper David Warner later.

Delhi Capitals needed to defend 13 runs in the final over but  Mukesh ensured that his team crossed the line by landing a few yorkers spot-on and conceding just five runs. The Delhi franchise put up 144/9 in their 20 overs, before restricting the Sunrisers Hyderabad to 137/6.

Not too many are aware that the bowler from Gopalganj of Bihar, who comes from an extremely humble background, had been instrumental along with two other seamers – Akashdeep (playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore now) and Ishan Porel (formerly with Punjab Kings) in seeing their state to two final appearances in last three years in Ranji Trophy.

‘’I just wanted to win the match for Delhi Capitals and it didn't matter to me if I didn't get wickets. I wanted to find a way to not concede a boundary in the final delivery. I'll look to replicate this performance in the future,’’ Mukesh told Cpitals media.

The Capitals batting, which had failed to fire all along, were in a spot of bother again when they were reduced to 62/5 in the eighth over. However, Manish Pandey and vice-captain Axar Patel strung a 69-run partnership to help the team post a respectable total.

Speaking about the partnership, Mukesh said: ‘’We lost five wickets in quick succession, but Sarfaraz and I thought that 140-150 would be enough on the wicket in Hyderabad. Axar and Manish’s partnership was very crucial for us.’’