Punjab Kings (PBKS) skipper Mayank Agarwal was displeased after his team's dismal batting performance in the 17-runs loss to Delhi Capitals (DC) at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Monday (May 16). With this win, the Capitals moved into the top four in the IPL 2022 standings.
Despite losing opener David Warner’s wicket on the first ball of the match, Mitchell Marsh’s 48-ball 63 and Sarfaraz Khan’s brisk 32 off 16 balls at the top took the Capitals' total to 159/7. In reply, Punjab openers Shikhar Dhawan (19 off 16 balls) and Jonny Bairstow ( 28 off 15 balls) put up 38 runs for the first wicket.
However, after both openers were removed, the middle-order batters couldn’t get going, and the Mayank-led squad was reduced to 82/7 in the 13th over. Batting at number 6, Jitesh Sharma, who has impressed the critics with his strokeplay, tried to get his team over the line with 44 off 34 balls but he only found support from Number 9 Rahul Chahar, who finished unbeaten on 25 off 24 balls.
Shardul Thakur was the pick of the bowlers for Delhi for his match-winning figures of 4/36 in 4 overs.
SEE ALSO: Cricket fraternity reacts as Shardul Thakur’s 4-fer against PBKS helps DC enter top 4
Mayank admitted after the match while speaking to Star Sports that his team had lost too many wickets too early in their chase.
"We didn't bat well. Between overs 5 and 10, we lost too many wickets and that's where we lost the game. I thought it was definitely chaseable for the batting we have and the wicket wasn't as bad as it seemed," he said.
"We just lost too many wickets between the 5th and 10th over and lost the game there," he added.
The 31-year-old said he hoped the Punjab franchise bring their A game in the final league match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday (May 22) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
"It's still a match to be played and a match to be won. Two points are crucial for us. We want to go out there and play the best cricket. I think we haven't yet played our best cricket yet and we look forward to doing that in the last game.”
"We need to speak about the way we went about things with the bat, but that's about it. It's a game to forget," said the PBKS captain.
(STAR SPORTS INPUTS)
