With two left-handed batters in Rishabh Pant and Axar Patel batting in the middle for Delhi Capitals, it resulted in Gujarat Titans’ holding back R Sai Kishore till the 19th over arrived.
The move taken by captain Shubman Gill was due to the match-up of left-arm spinner against left-handed batters, as he persisted with Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad, who couldn’t provide the much-needed control in middle-overs, thanks to Axar and Pant neutralising their threat.
GT brought in Kishore in the 19th over to counter right-handed Tristan Stubbs, but the batter creamed his drives twice in the gap between extra-cover and long-off, followed by clubbing the spinner for two mammoth sixes over long-on to take 22 runs off the over.
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After GT lost by four runs, Kishore, the Player of the match in GT’s win over Punjab Kings at Mullanpur with a brilliant four-fer, stated the decision to keep him off the bowling attack was done with keeping the game situation in mind.
“You have to put yourself in the shoes of the captain and the coach, and how they’ll be thinking. If I was leading the side and if there was some other spinner or some other bowler whom you feel there could be an extra chance for scoring, maybe you’ll be slightly hesitant (to use the bowler),” he said in the post-match press conference.
Asked if GT were overdoing the match-ups thing, Kishore remarked, “It’s a very dicey question. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t work. It also depends on the ground dimensions. Say we are playing on a slightly slower wicket with bigger boundaries. Last game (against Punjab Kings) I bowled the 19th over with two lefties.”
“I really felt it was not a thing to be worried about. Ashish Nehra is big on having no egos in the side. And every call is taken for the team’s success and as a player you should also be able to take it,” he added.
GT had a tough night with the ball, with their move of not utilising Sandeep Warrier’s final over raising eyebrows as an off-colour Mohit Sharma came in the firing line of a Pant onslaught, giving 31 runs in the final over, as DC took 97 runs off the last five overs.
“At one stage we thought we will be able to restrict them around 200-210. We gave away a few extra runs in the last couple of overs. But the good thing about chasing is that you know what you are chasing.”
“It’s a small ground, and it’s chaseable. Execution becomes very important (for bowlers). If there’s nothing in the wicket for the bowlers, then you have to execute your plans – or your yorkers,” added captain Shubman Gill.
GT came close to chasing 225, thanks to fifties from B Sai Sudarshan, David Miller and some late blitzkrieg from Rashid Khan. “I think we played some really good cricket. Disappointing to lose in the end, but great character shown by everyone.”
“When you’re chasing 224, there’s not much to discuss. You have to go from ball one, and keep smashing them. Impact Player has a bit of role (in the big scores). Teams have an extra cushion, so they just keep going,” added Gill.
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