Rishabh Pant the batsman could not do enough to cover up the flaws of Rishabh Pant the captain on Tuesday night in Ahmedabad.
The reason for Delhi Capitals’ one-run loss chasing a 172-run target could be traced back to the last over of the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s innings. Up till that point, Delhi had bowled well to keep Bangalore’s score at 148/5 after 19 overs. Delhi captain Pant entrusted Marcus Stoinis with the ball for the 20th over.
But that was Stoinis’ first over of the game, that too with a certain AB de Villiers at the crease. The South African great slapped Stoinis’ military-medium pace for three sixes in the final over, which cost a total of 23 runs, to take Bangalore’s ordinary looking total to a challenging 171/5.
Delhi chased valiantly and in the end required 14 runs to win off the last over. The increasingly-impressive Mohammed Siraj bowled the 20th over for Bangalore. Pant was at the crease with West Indian Shimron Hetmyer. Siraj conceded just 4 runs off the first four balls to bring down the equation to 10 off two balls. He fired in two full tosses, Pant, who ended up facing five of the last six balls, swung his bat wildly but could only get two fours.
Bangalore recorded their fifth win of the season, while Pant was left to reflect on what could have happened had he not gambled with Stoinis in the last over of the opposition innings. Asked after the match what was the thinking behind giving Stoinis the last over, a crestfallen Pant murmured: “We counted the overs really well, but in the end the spinners didn’t get the help we thought they would, that’s why I went with Stoinis for the last over.”
Even if that analysis is correct, Pant should have retained one among Ishant Sharma (1/26), Avesh Khan (1/24) and Kagiso Rabada (1/38) for the last over. But then, at 23 years, he is a young captain who is still learning the tricks of the trade. One assumes such matches will make him wiser.
Power at play
The match saw some fierce rear-end hitting from both the teams. First it was De Villiers, who yet again almost single-handedly altered equations. His 42-ball 75 not out (his 40th IPL fifty), studded with five sixes and three fours, made Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner tweet: “Legend @ABdeVilliers17 my idol.”
The next-best innings for Bangalore came from Rajat Patidar (31 off 22 balls).
Later, Hetmyer almost threatened to do a De Villiers for Delhi. With 46 needed off the last 18 balls, the left-handed batsman muscled Kyle Jamieson for three huge sixes in the 18th over to give Delhi a better chance of overhauling the total. Before that over, the tall New Zealander had conceded just 11 runs off 3 overs and had also taken the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan.
It is odd how this powerful Caribbean import is not allowed to bat a bit up the order. Hetmyer came in at No.6 on Tuesday and remained unbeaten on 53 off 25 balls.
Pant himself played a good knock of 58 not out off 48 balls. Good, but not good enough.