Gujarat Titans (GT) opener Shubman Gill spoke on captain Hardik Pandya’s uncharacteristically troublesome knock in their 5-run defeat to Delhi Capitals (DC) on May 2nd, in Ahmedabad and called it an off day for the skipper.
Though Hardik Pandya scored 59* in 53 balls, he failed to take GT past the finishing line and in fact, he failed to hit a single boundary in the last thirteen balls he played and Titans fell short in the chase by five runs.
“As a player and as a batsman, we are all bound to have one off days. It was just one of those off days. But he did back himself to get those runs but credit to Delhi, they bowled some really good yorkers at the back end,” Gill told reporters after the match.
He also said that while the surface in Ahmedabad, which was conducive for pacer bowlers, was tough to bat on, but not unplayable. This could be seen from GT pacer Mohammad Shami’s bowling figures of 4/11.
“I don’t think the wicket was that bad. We have bowled really well upfront. We failed to have partnerships in the top order which created pressure on the lower order. In the low-scoring game, when there is too much pressure after a poor start, you try to take it deep and leave it to the last over. It was a tough wicket but not unplayable,” he said.
While Shami had rattled the DC top order by picking the wickets of Phil Salt, Priyam Garg, Rilee Russouw and Manish Pandey to finish with figures of 4/11 to leave DC 73/6 in 14 overs.
However, Aman Khan hit 51 and with help of Akshar Patel (27) and Ripal Patel (23) took DC to 130/8 in 20 overs.
GT didn’t start their chase any better and were reduced to 32/4 as Wriddhiman Saha, Shubman Gill. Vijay Shankar and David Miller all fell for single digit score with Miller falling for a duck.
Though Hardik Pandya made an unbeaten 59, Abhinav Manohar made 26 and Rahul Tewatia scored 20 in 7 balls, GT still fell short as Ishant Sharma bowled a brilliant last over to defend 12 runs.
“The odd one were stopping on the surface. I think their spinners bowled exceptionally well in the middle overs and they dried up the boundaries.
We lost by five runs that one hit. The difference was just one shot, you can’t really figure out the errors. It was almost neck-to-neck. In low-scoring games like these, you can’t say which team made more mistakes and which team made lesser mistakes,” he said.
He also said that despite adding 62 runs for the fifth wicket, neither of Hardik Pandya or Abhinav Manohar managed to change their gears and were kept quiet by the Delhi bowlers by not giving them easy boundaries.
“At that point see if one of either Hardik or Abhinav one of the batters would have gotten out, it would have been even more difficult for us. It was important for them to build the partnership, which they did, and the inability to hit boundaries in the slog overs cost us. One or two boundaries and we would have been over the line,” Gill lamented.
Shubman admitted that chasing 200 plus total in the T20 is easier than chasing the low-scoring total.
“If you lose a couple of early wickets. It leaves you in limbo whether to hit them out of the game or bat through. It is difficult for teams to chase low-scoring totals,” he said.
GT will next travel to Jaipur to face Rajasthan Royals on May 5, while DC will clash with Royal Challengers Bangalore in Delhi on May 6.
(Indian Express inputs)
