Delhi Capitals wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant said that his team was trying to chase down Rajasthan Royals’s modest score of 116 in ten overs in order to pip Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League points table.

However, a double strike from leg-spinner Ish Sodhi forced the Shreyas Iyer-led to revisit their plans. Pant slammed an unbeaten 53 off 38 balls to guide DC to a five-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals and enter the playoffs on a confident note.

“I am always happy whenever I am taking my team home,” Pant said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

“It’s always special when you finish the match. I couldn’t finish off the last match but today I finished off the match. We took it deep and chased it easily in the end.

He added, “Firstly, we were thinking about chasing it down within 10 overs but when we lost early wickets we just focused on winning this match. We are happy in playing any team in the playoffs. When seamers take early wickets on these kind of wickets, it becomes easy for the spinners.”

Chasing 115, Pant smashed five sixes and two fours in his unbeaten knock at the Feroz Shah Kotla. While DC skipper Shreyas Iyer said that the players were able to play with freedom and express themselves better this season, his counterpart Ajinkya Rahane admitted that it turned out to be a campaign they would like to forget in hurry.

“We had a tough season this year,” Rahane said.

“We didn’t capitalise on the tough moments, we can’t place the blame on the boys for today, many of them are playing their third or fourth game. We need to learn from this and come back well next season.

“Riyan Parag has been exceptional, so has Shreyas Gopal – he always thinks about taking wickets. We play the game with love and passion, it’s all about attitude. We didn’t bat well, 140-150 would have been challenging.

“The bowlers gave it all, showed a lot of character. Personally, my season was good, I was confident about batting. Captaincy and batting is different, I always want to give the best to my franchise, it’s all about staying positive and giving your best.”