If I get going I don't take my foot off pedal: Phil Salt

NEW DELHI: Delhi Capitals (DC) wicket-keeper batter Phil Salt, who played a match-winning knock against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), opened up on his strength of pulling big shots and stated that the wicket was slow and the management said about playing off the back foot.

DC registered their fourth win of the season to stay afloat as they beat RCB in IPL 2023 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.

Phil Salt's blistering innings of 87 (45) coupled with quick-fire knocks from Mitchell Marsh (26 off 17) and Rilee Rossouw (35* off 22) powered the home side to a seven-wicket win after Virat Kohli (55 off 46) and Mahipal Lomror's (54* off 29) fifties had lifted the away side to a competitive 181/4.

Salt claimed that DC was perfectly prepared to face RCB and was only concerned with remaining positive. "We spoke about being positive and taking them on. We saw how good they were in Bangalore when they had their tails up. Something that's a real strength of mine is that if I really get going I don't take my foot off the pedal too often," Salt said in a post-match presentation. Salt noted that he expected the wicket to slow down in the middle overs and that DC hitters would have to bat hard to reach the "par total."

"We knew the wicket is a little slow and low and we knew that realistically we would slow down in the middle. I thought it was par. I thought we would have to bat really well to get there but the boys came out swinging and we got it done," Salt added.

DC skipper David Warner's dismissal brought Mitchell Marsh to the crease, who played a fine knock of 26 runs before losing his wicket.

Salt pointed out that Marsh put the RCB bowlers on the back foot. "He (Marsh) came in and hit the second ball for six or something like that and put the bowlers on the back foot," Salt added.

Coming to the match, chasing 182, David Warner was up and running straightaway as he cracked a couple of fours off Siraj in the first over of the innings.

Phil Salt too took the aggressive route as he cracked a four off Glenn Maxwell and then a four and a six off Josh Hazlewood.

Warner welcomed Wanindu Hasaranga into the attack with a powerful six over deep square leg.

He thumped another four through the same region to make it 12 runs off the over.

Salt continued his aggressive batting as he hit consecutive sixes and a four off Mohammed Siraj.

It was Hazlewood who finally broke the 60-run stand as he outfoxed Warner (22 off 14) with a slower one, having him caught at mid-off.

Mitchell Marsh quickly got off the blocks as he cracked a six and a four off Hazlewood to take DC to 70/1 at the end of the Powerplay.

Salt continued to keep the scoreboard ticking and brought up his second IPL fifty, off just 28 balls and DC's 100 as he smacked a pullover mid-wicket off Karn Sharma to take 16 off the 9th over.

With the partnership blossoming, Kohli brought on Harshal Patel, who had replaced Kedar Jadhav as the Impact Player in the eighth over, into the attack and he broke the 59-run partnership, having Marsh (26 off 17) caught at deep square leg off a slower one.

With 56 needed off 48, Salt and Rilee Rossouw took the attack to Harshal, smashing three sixes and a four to amass 24 runs from the over and bring the required run rate below five.

It was a momentum-changing over which put DC firmly in the driver's seat. Salt continued to deal in sixes as he smacked one over deep mid-wicket off Hasaranga to bring the equation down to 23 needed off 36.

Salt's fantastic 87-run innings finally came to an end as he dragged one onto the stumps off Karn Sharma with 11 needed off 28. Axar arrived and cracked a six on the first ball.

Rossouw finished it off in style with a six-over deep mid-wicket as DC chased down the target with 20 balls and seven wickets to spare.