Watson praises DC skipper Axar’s leadership

Former Australia allrounder Shane Watson said he was heavily impressed by how Axar Patel stood up to put in impactful performances and propel his side Delhi Capitals DC to another clinical win over Lucknow Super Giants LSG in IPL 2025At the BRSABV Ekana Stadium Axar bowled his four overs upfront with his figures reading 029 But more importantly his economy rate was better than Kuldeep Yadav who went wicketless in IPL 2025 for the first timeAlso ReadMuzarabani takes nine in match as Zimbabwe beat Brsquodesh by 3 wicketsDC captain Axar Patel left with teammate KL Rahul during their win over LSG in Lucknow on Tuesday PicPTIWith the bat Axar stood up to apply finishing touches by hitting 34 not out off 20 balls as DC completed the chase of 160 in 175 overs ldquoThe pitch did get better to bat on but it was Axar Patelrsquos intent from ball one that stood out LSG didnrsquot bowl particularly well to him early on but he capitalised It was the kind of innings LSG needed from Rishabh PantldquoAxar stood up for his team mdash bowled his four overs straight led from the front and made an impact You can see he really wants to play his part as skipper mdash something we havenrsquot quite seen from Rishabhrdquo said Watson on JioHotstarAxar put on an unbeaten 56run stand with KL Rahul who hit 57 not out his third fifty of the season Facing LSG for the first time since his not so pleasant exit from the franchise Rahul also reached the landmark of 5000 runs in the IPL becoming the quickest batter to get there in 130 inningsldquoKL Rahul just did what he does best mdash batted with complete control He didnrsquot need to take risks just played a steady hand and picked his moments What stands out is his ability to switch gears mdash hersquos taken the game on throughout the tournament but today he was calm composed and calculated That kind of flexibility gives Delhi Capitals so much depthrdquo added WatsonThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoeveratOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params