On an evening where Delhi Capitals (DC) bowlers dominated and bundled out Gujarat Titans (GT) for 89, skipper Rishabh Pant won the ‘Player of the Match’ for his exceptional performance behind the stumps. Pant pulled off two stumpings and a couple of stunning catches to equal veteran wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik’s rare feat for DC.
Pant became the second DC wicketkeeper to effect four dismissals. In the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2009, Karthik had two catches and as many stumpings against Rajasthan Royals (RR) at Bloemfontein.
Pant's first catch was that off David Miller. He jumped to his left and took a one-handed stunner. In Tristan Stubbs' maiden over, he affected two stumpings to get rid of Abhinav Manohar and impact player Shahrukh Khan. Later in the 18th over, he took Rashid Khan's catch off Mukesh Kumar's bowling.
In the run chase of 90, he walked out to bat at no.5 after the completion of fifth over of the innings. He hit Noor Ahmad for a boundary. In Rashid's second over, he charged down the track and hit a six over long-off. He remained unbeaten for 16 runs from 11 balls as DC won the game by six wickets in just 8.5 overs to boost their net run rate (NRR) and jump to sixth spot on the IPL 2024 points table.
Pant was ecstatic with his team's performance as he said in the post match presentation: “Lots of things to be pleased about. We talked about the champion thought process and our team showed today that we can play like that and really happy to see that.”
Conversation before run chase
He also revealed that conversation in the dugout before the run chase against GT as they were at the ninth place on the points table.
“The only conversation we had before the chase was - let's get it as early as possible, we lost a few run-rate points earlier and we covered it up. We just love being in Ahmedabad, we love the stadium, the vibe here and looking forward to play more matches here. We just want to enjoy our win, one at a time and move forward learning from it,” said the 26-year-old.
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