Despite losing the game by 106 runs against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Visakhapatnam on April 3 the Delhi Capitals (DC) skipper Rishabh Pant put up a fighting knock of 55 runs from 25 balls. He kept the DC alive in the chase but was not enough as the top order didn’t give them a good start. KKR posted a total of 272, the second-highest total of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and just five runs behind Sunrisers Hyderabad’s (SRH) record as they scored 277 against Mumbai Indians (MI).
During Pant’s knock-one shot, he played off Venkatesh Iyer’s delivery that went for the six and the Bollywood star and KKR’s co-owner Shahrukh Khan stood up and applauded the DC skipper for his no-look shot. Iyer bowled on the leg stump and Pant flicked the ball over fine leg and went for six.
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This was Pant’s second half-century in this season of the IPL. In DC’s last match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Pant played the match-winning knock of 51 off 32 balls. This season of the IPL holds importance, especially for Pant, who returned to competitive cricket almost after 14 months. Pant went through a horrific car accident in December 2022, he underwent surgery and then rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. Before the start of IPL 2024, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) declared him fit as a wicket-keeper batter.
KKR’s Domination
DC batters were looking clueless apart from their skipper Pant and Tristan Stubbs. Stubbs scored 54 off 32 deliveries but DC kept losing the wickets and lost all their wickets on 166 in 17.2 overs. The Knight Riders totally outclassed the DC team as they never looked like they were in the game either with the ball or with the bat. KKR dominated the whole match and didn’t give the chance to DC to make their comeback.
Pant on team’s approach during the game
After the match, Pant talked about his team’s approach. He said in batting we decided to go hard and this is how you approach these games where you are chasing a big total.
"As a batting unit, we talked about going hard (after the target) and that's how we approach these games because it is better to be all-out trying to go for the total than not chase it down”, Pant told Star Sports.
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