Corey Anderson praises Zaheer Khan for his intelligence

Zaheer Khan has truly announced himself as a captain of Delhi Daredevils this year. With some young guns at his disposal and some destructive all-rounders, Zaheer and Dravid are forming a formidable team that can literally go all the way.

Corey Anderson shone some light on the same after the match yesterday. He praised his captain for his ability to read the game and was happy with the performances of their openers Sam Billings and Sanju Samson as well.

Delhi managed a major score of 188 at the loss of six wickets and it was possible because openers gave them a good start. The pitch was on the slower side and it was not easy to hit the ball straight away and this was proved by Anderson himself as he had to get in before he could smack the ball.

Anderson scored 39 of 22 deliveries also picking up two important wickets which earned him a man of the match award. This was the first match at Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi and Anderson told us exactly how important the opening stand was.

He said, “It was the kind of wicket where it was tough to get going. Sanju (Samson) and Sam (Billings) set a great platform. It was good to have that platform to go from. We thought 160 might have been a reasonable target during one of the time-outs and in the end it probably was.”

Talking about the changes Delhi make in every game Anderson said that they purely tactical and it is also important to find the right combination. “It’s valuable to be able to chop and change combinations. Finding the right people to do the job is key,” explained Anderson.

Zaheer Khan was very innovative in his field placing and Anderson blamed his match reading ability for the same. He said, “As a bowler, you have to read the game. Zaheer sets some interesting fields and he’s a smart cricketer. It’s a nice confidence to have. It was a clinical performance from the bowlers.”