Expressing his disappointment after the loss against Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant is hopeful of turning things around in the next game. DC, on Thursday (March 28), suffered a 12-run defeat at the hands of RR to lose their second game in IPL 2024. Chasing 186 for their first win of the season, the Delhi-based outfit were on 97 for 2 at one stage with David Warner and Rishabh Pant well set.
However, both of them departed in quick succession before Abhishek Porel failed as well to leave DC reeling at 122 for 5. Tristan Stubbs played a knock of 44 runs from 23 balls but could not power DC to a win. Needing 17 runs off the last over, Stubbs and Axar Patel could only score four as DC ended their innings on 173 for 5.
Rishabh Pant on the loss:
Speaking after the loss, Rishabh Pant began by stating that he was disappointed and urged his teammates to learn from the defeat. He pointed out that the bowlers failed to finish the innings strongly while the batters could not make an impact in the middle overs.
The Royals scored 77 runs in the final five overs to post a 180-plus total. In the last over of the innings, Riyan Parag took Anrich Nortje to the cleaners and smashed him for 25 runs which eventually made the difference in the end.
“Definitely disappointed. Best thing we can do from this is learn from it,” said Rishabh Pant.
“The bowlers did really well till 15-16 overs, batters sometimes go on at the death and score quickly, that happened in this game. Marsh and Warner gave a good start, but we lost a few wickets in the middle overs and in the end, we had too many runs to cover up. There are other options, we wanted Nortje to bowl at the death and sometimes you can go for runs, hopefully, we can do better in the next match,” he added.
DC’s next game is against reigning champions Chennai Super Kings on March 31. The Rishabh Pant-led side will be desperate to win the game to open their account in IPL 2024. On the other hand, the Royals’ next game is against Mumbai Indians on April 1.