We Will Not Take It Easy Even After Qualifying: Kagiso Rabada

Delhi Capitals pacer Kagiso Rabada has said that his team shouldn't take its foot off the pedal even though they have confirmed a top-two finish. Delhi, sitting on top of the points table with 20 points from 13 matches, will take on third-placed Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their final league match of IPL 2021 on Friday in Dubai.

"It's been a great season. We've given ourselves another chance to play for a spot in the final, so we are thrilled by that. Even though the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore doesn't hold a lot of significance for us, we should not take our foot off the pedal. We should just keep playing the way we have been playing," Rabada said in a release issued by the franchise on Thursday.

Asked if Delhi will be thinking about their loss against Bangalore in the first half of the tournament in Ahmedabad, Rabada believes the one-run loss is a thing of the past. "Our loss against RCB in the first half of the tournament is definitely a thing of the past. However, we know how threatening they can be. They have some really destructive batters and Harshal Patel has been doing extremely well. We need to believe in our strengths. The result in our last match against RCB is a thing of the past, but we still need to learn from that result."

Rabada, who the winning runs in Delhi's tense win against the Chennai Super Kings on Monday, spoke about thoughts in his mind before hitting the boundary. "It wasn't the most ideal situation, but I backed myself to put the team in a winning position when we needed 2 runs from 3 balls, by at least getting Hetmyer on strike. I tried to watch the ball and anticipate where Bravo was going to bowl. I just wanted to get bat on ball and that worked for us."

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The 26-year-old concluded by saying that Delhi will look to play its best cricket in the business end of the tournament. "We've done really great work so far. We have earned the right to be in this position and we have been in this position before, which helps. We are going to give it our all in the upcoming matches and look to play our best cricket in the business end of the tournament."