In the David vs Goliath contest between Gujarat Titans (GT) and Delhi Capitals (DC), David i.e., Delhi Capitals, emerged victorious. They handed a shock defeat to the 1st placed team Gujarat by a slender margin of 5 runs.
Hardik Pandya scored a knock of 59* runs in 53 balls and stayed till the end but couldn’t take his team over the finishing line. He later admitted in the post-match presentation that it was his fault and that he couldn’t “get his rhythm” during the knock.
”Obviously, we would have taken 129 on any given day. Those last couple of wickets and at the end, Rahul got us back in the game. I tried my best but could not capitalize. It boils down to how I was not able to finish the game,” said the Gujarat skipper in the post-match presentation.
”We were hoping to get a couple of big overs in the middle but at that point in time, we could not get rhythm. It was new for Abhinav (Manohar) as well.” I think it’s just that this game I think we lost because I could not get my rhythm and we kept losing wickets at the start and that put us under pressure. We like to take it deep and get a couple of big overs which we could not get,” he added.
In a pretty good wicket to bat on, the Gujarat bowling department led by Mohammad Shami did extremely well to restrict Delhi to 130 runs. But none of the batters except Pandya, Rahul Tewatia, and Abhinav Manohar got their bearings right and GT ended up being on the losing side of the spectrum.
‘We lost a couple of early wickets where we had to take some time. We could not get the rhythm in the middle. The intent had to be there…if you keep losing wickets, it’s difficult to keep the intent as well. Shami (4/11 in four overs) was lethal with the new ball as he knocked the wind out of the Capitals’ top order,” added the Gujarat skipper.
Mohammad Shami’s 4-fer went in vain
Indian speedster Mohammad Shami scythed through the opposition’s batting order and bagged 4 wickets. He conceded just 11 runs in his 4 overs and deservedly got the Player of the Match award.
The out-an-out fast bowler’s scalps included that of Phil Salt, Priyam Garg, Rilee Rossouw, and Manish Pandey. Shami got Phil Salt for a golden duck.
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