IPL 2022: ‘Love batting with Warner,’ says DC's Mitchell Marsh

The Delhi Capitals all-rounder says he feels lucky to have been able to bat a lot with good friend David Warner in the last 18 months.

Half centuries from Mitchell Marsh and David Warner guided DC to an eight wicket win over RR.

Mitchell Marsh registered his highest individual score in IPL 2022 in the contest against Rajasthan Royals at the DY Patil Stadium here on Wednesday.

Speaking to mediapersons after steering the Capitals to an eight-wicket win, he said his batting performance was reward for sticking to his routine and “processes” in the last two weeks.

Marsh came out to bat in the first over of Capitals’ chase of 161, and saw off a tough phase of play. The plan, he said, was to be cautious during the Powerplay and string together a big partnership with David Warner.

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“If you look at both teams in the Powerplay tonight, the ball was swinging around, also nipping around. It was probably one of the tougher Powerplays that I’ve batted in since I started playing T20 cricket. We assessed that we had to get through that unscathed. If we were two or three down in that Powerplay, the game gets really hard. So, we assessed that we had to cut back on our runs, make sure we were one-down at the end of the Powerplay. Lot of credit to them, they bowled exceptionally well to us in the Powerplay and made it really tough.

“Chasing 160, you are just one big partnership away, so that was our main focus. Over the last 18 months, I’ve just loved batting with Davey. With him opening and me batting at 3, we’ve had a lot of great partnerships and tonight was a very memorable one for the Delhi Capitals,” he said.

Marsh said he has looked up to Warner for a long time and his friendship with him “comes out really well” in the middle of the game.

“In terms of the way he goes about it, he’s someone that I’ve looked up to for a long time now. And I feel very lucky that over the last 18 months I’ve been able to bat with him a lot, and form a great partnership when we’re batting. And also a great friendship; I think the friendship comes out really well in the middle of the game so it’s a lot of fun. His experience, his calmness, you can all see how much he loves winning. Coming back to Delhi, it all feels like it’s come back to where it all began for him. He’s been super consistent this year; I love batting with him,” he said.

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Royals’ R. Ashwin also played an excellent innings, but couldn’t bat on for as long as Marsh. Ashwin said he had worked a lot on his batting and that he knew he would be sent up the order – he batted at No. 3 on Wednesday – at some point during the tournament.

“At the start of the season, it was communicated to me that they would be using me up the order. We had a few practice games also where I opened and I kind of enjoyed it. I have worked a lot on my batting so it’s nice to see whatever’s been worked on translates on the field. Pretty good feel about the knock today; nevertheless, it didn’t result in a win,” he said.

The toss was crucial in the game, he felt.

“I thought toss was pretty crucial today because the wicket was a touch tacky. And obviously if we have a bit of luck or taken the catches maybe the game would have taken a different course. These things do happen. The back-end of the tournament is always pressure. Hopefully we can turn it on and string a couple of wins together,” he said.