Delhi Capitals (DC) skipper Rishabh Pant on Sunday (10th April) talked about his team’s win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Match 19 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 in Mumbai. He said that when a side score more than 200 runs there’s not much pressure.
DC registered their second win of the IPL 15 season after they thumped KKR by 44 runs. Asked to bat first, they got off to a flyer as Prithvi Shaw (51) and David Warner (61) added 93 runs for the opening partnership. Vital contributions from Rishabh Pant (27), Shardul Thakur (29*) and Akshar Patel (22*), in the end, helped them post a mammoth total of 215/5 on the board.
They then started well with the ball as Khaleel Ahmed removed both the KKR openers in Ajinkya Rahane (8) and Venkatesh Iyer (18) inside the powerplay. Skipper Shreyas Iyer (51) and Nitish Rana (30) then led the fightback for their side but Kuldeep Yadav returned with the figures of 4/35 to help DC bundle out the opposition for 171 in 19.4 overs.
Speaking at the post-match presentation, Rishabh Pant said that as a batting unit they wanted to put pressure on the opposition and when the score is over 200 there’s not much pressure as compared to when it is around 170-180.
“We would have fielded first but didn’t think much. As a batting unit, we wanted to put pressure on the opposition. In these conditions, when the dew is not there if teams score 170-180 it is decent and the pressure is not as much as it is when the score is 200 or more,” Rishabh Pant said.
Read Also: Twitterverse reacts as Sarfaraz Khan fails to get a chance to bat as DC pile up 215/5 against KKR
Pant talked about Kuldeep Yadav, who won the Player of the Match award, saying that they are trying to back him as much as they can.
He also opened up about the team’s decision to hold back Sarfaraz Khan and revealed that the batter could’ve come in handy if they would’ve lost wickets in the end.
“Kuldeep has been working for one year but hasn’t been getting enough chances. We are trying to back him and he is doing well. We wanted to keep the momentum going, and hence sent Axar. We wanted Sarfaraz to arrest the slide if we lose too many wickets and hence kept him back,” he said.
DC will next take on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Saturday (16th April) at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
(ANI inputs)
