Delhi Capitals spinner Ravichandran Ashwin looked a satisfied man after registering a big win of 59 runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Monday at the Dubai International Stadium.

Even though Delhi lost Amit Mishra to injury, Ashwin hailed the bench strength of the team in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Interestingly, Mishra’s replacement, Axar Patel, played brilliantly and was adjudged the Man of the Match.

“That’s one of the beauty of this particular Delhi side, even when my shoulder dislocated, Amit came in and played the role, now he is injured so Axar has come in and played the role,” Ashwin was seen speaking at the post-match conference as shown on Star Sports.

“There is enough strength on our bench and sometimes when it comes to the IPL, the people coming out of that bench become very important, that bench is probably good enough to be another IPL team, it has got a lot of quality, I think Amit will be dearly missed, moving forward we will try to keep him happy at home,” he added.

After Stoinis smashed 53 off 26 deliveries and Prithvi Shaw made 23-ball 42 to help Delhi in posting 196/4, Kagiso Rabada and Axar Patel led Delhi Capitals’ attack to restrict RCB to 137/4.

While Rabada and Axar set the stage on fire with figures of 4/24 and 2/18 respectively, they received good support from compatriot Anrich Nortje (2/22) and Ashwin (1/26).

Speaking more about Axar’s performance, the veteran right-arm spinner said, “Sometimes we tend to blow-up images and stats in T20 cricket, sometimes I feel it is a bit over-rated in a game like T20 because it is somewhat like football where people are playing their roles and one such person is Axar, he always goes under the radar, he builds the pressure up for someone else to capitalise and take the wicket.

“These are the heroes that are appreciated inside the dressing room for us at Delhi Capitals and Ricky Ponting is very particular about that. When you get appreciated, people want to stick to their roles,” Ashwin added.

It was Delhi Capitals’ fourth win which took them to the top of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). The Shreyas Iyer-led team have now eight points from five games.