Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) sneeked into the play-offs after Mumbai Indians (MI) broke Delhi Capitals' (DC) heart with a five-wicket win in their last IPL match on Saturday.
Already out of contention, MI played partypoopers as they first restricted DC to 159/7 with Jasprit Bumrah snapping three wickets and then returned to overhaul the target in 19.1 overs to knock the 2020 finalists out of the tournament.
But what cost DC the match was skipper Pant's decision to not review that turned out to be a blunder as David slammed 34 runs off just 11 balls with the help of two boundaries and four sixes to take the game out of DC's grasp.
Meanwhile, former India head coach Ravi Shastri was amazed by Pant's decision of not going for the DRS and said that common sense demanded that he take the review, as they had two reviews left and five overs to go.
"What does common sense demand? Okay, there's Rishabh Pant and Shardul Thakur, but what are the others doing there? Common sense demands five overs left, two reviews, Tim David has just come in, you've taken a wicket and you have a great opportunity of taking two wickets quickly. And still five overs to go. And you having the upper hand, you had to take it," Shastri said on Star Sports after the match before adding that "it's a no-brainer."
"This is a bitter pill to swallow. It's like a balloon that burst above them. They are going to have sleepless nights over this one, because it's a place for the play-offs that you've missed out on," he said.
"They have only themselves to blame, nothing else. No excuses, you can't hide behind anything, you lost it, more than Mumbai Indians winning it. You didn't deserve to qualify and RCB do," Shastri further added.
Earlier, a disappointed Pant said he felt that Tim David had nicked the first delivery he faced, but didn't go for the review as most of his teammates inside the circle were not convinced, a decision which cost them a place in the IPL play-offs.
"I thought there was something but everyone standing in the circle was not convinced enough. So I was asking should we go up. At the end, I didn't take the review," Pant said after the match.
Pant said the match was very much in their hands but slipped away towards the end.
"I think most of the game we were on top. But on a few occasion when we were on top, we let it slip away from our grasp. That's one of the things we have been doing throughout the tournament. I think we were not good enough to win this match I guess." "...at the same time we could have done better execution, better planning. That's the only thing and we have been missing a lot throughout the tournament. So we have to learn from our mistakes next season and come back as a strong team again next year," he said.
