Batting improved under Shreyas' captaincy

On the back of yet another below-par campaign, Delhi Daredevils seemed to have turned the corner around, atleast as far as the batting is concerned.

The change in the batting approach happened mainly after Shreyas Iyer took charge as the team's captain, following Gautam Gambhir's resignation from that position.

In the three matches Iyer has captained, Delhi have won two and most importantly came close to scoring 200 hundred on all the three occasions.

In his maiden match as skipper, Daredevils posted a massive 219/4 against Kolkata Knight Riders, thanks to Iyer's stupendous 93 off 40 balls. Young Prithvi Shaw scored his maiden IPL fifty that night, with a 44-ball 62 runs.

In the subsequent match, Delhi were set a massive 212-target, but they came agonizingly close to reaching it, falling short by 13 runs in the end. Rishabh Pant's 79 from 45 balls and Vijay Shankar's 31-ball 54 helped them put 198 on board.

On Wednesday night, the batsmen yet again set the stage on fire, helping the side reach 196/6 in just 17.1 overs, before rain interrupted proceedings.

Pant was again the star with a 29-ball-69, while Iyer (50 off 35 balls) and Shaw (47 off 25 balls) were equally impressive.

In the previous six matches under Gautam Gambhir's leadership, they managed to cross the 190-mark only once. Jason Roy's blitzkrieg (91 off 53 balls) helped them chase down 195-target against Mumbai Indians in their third match of the campaign.

On Wednesday night, during the post-match press conference, Pant said minimizing their mistakes helped them improve their batting performances.

"We were batting brilliant in all the games but small mistakes from our side that was not going our way cost us the match every time we were playing. Now, we are just making sure that won't happen," said the star of Wednesday night's victory.

Pant, who is Delhi's top scorer this season with 375 runs from nine matches with an impressive average of 41.66, also explained how new-skipper Iyer and young Shaw are laying the perfect platform for him to come at No 4 and play his shots freely.

"Everyone has a different role in the team. They are playing at the top order, they have to maintain the run rate and they are doing a pretty good job. After that I am coming in and doing a good job for my team. Everyone is helping to win the match. Everyone is taking the responsibility to perform for the team," he explained.

18-year-old Shaw has been the find of this IPL season for Delhi. In four matches, he has 140 runs to his name at an average of 35. Pant only had good words to say about India's current U-19 World Cup winning captain. 

"He was a brilliant kid from day one but he was not getting his chance. He was practicing pretty well and when he got the chance, he capitalised on those," he said.

Even though batting looks impressive, bowling has been a concern for the side. They leaked 211 against Chennai Super Kings, before conceding 146 against Rajasthan in just 12 overs.

But, Pant downplayed those concerns.

"The wickets are pretty good for batting. We are doing a pretty good job. Last match, Mahi bhai played an exceptional knock and even Rayudu played a brilliant knock. That's part and parcel of the game. We are just taking the positives from every match," he concluded.