Before Sameer Rizvi lit up the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday evening with a knock of 90 against Mumbai Indians, Mukesh Kumar did his bit with the ball to set up a six-wicket win for Delhi Capitals.

Entrusted with the new ball on a deck that wasn’t as conducive to stroke-play as expected, the 32-year-old medium-pacer struck twice in his second over, removing southpaws Ryan Rickelton and Tilak Varma in the space of three deliveries. He finished with figures of 3-0-26-2.

“You have to first read the pitch, whether it is slow or not. You have to make your plans accordingly. Here, if you hit the pitch hard, the bounce was generally low. I focused on that and mixed it up with cutters,” Mukesh said of his performance in the post-match press conference on Saturday.

“My mindset is still to take wickets. That is why I was bowling at the stumps. I was looking to attack.”

That the pitch played as it did came as a surprise to the hosts as well. “Last year, we played on run-scoring tracks. We had asked for a flat wicket, but this surface wasn’t like that,” he noted.

When the season began, Mukesh was expected to face stiff competition for a slot in the starting line-up, particularly from Jammu & Kashmir’s Auqib Nabi on the back of his stellar domestic campaign. But the man from Bihar, who has featured in three Tests, six ODIs and 17 T20Is for India, has shown why is ahead of the pack in Capitals’ first two outings.

“There are practice matches before an IPL season. If you do well there, the management backs you. I did well in the practice match. So, the team has backed me. The performances are showing,” he stated.