Hardik Pandya: “Obviously we would have taken 129 on any given day. Those last couple of wickets and at the end, Rahul got us back in the game. I tried my best but could not capitalize. It boils down to me. We were hoping to get a couple of big overs in the middle but at that point in time, we could not get rhythm. It was new for Abhinav as well. It boils down to how I was not able to finish the game. Full marks to their bowlers as well and full ownership of my side when I could not finish the game. I should’ve.
The wicket was good enough. I think it was more about the wicket pressure. I don’t think the wicket played many roles. It was a tad slower than what we are used to here. But they bowled really well. We lost a couple of early wickets so we had to take some time. We could not get the rhythm in the middle. Rahul brought us back into the game. Otherwise, they were quite ahead. The intent had to be there. It’s just that we lost a couple of wickets where if you keep losing wickets, it’s difficult to keep the intent as well.
I think it’s just that this game I think we lost because I could not get my rhythm and we kept losing wickets at the start and that put us under pressure. We like to take it deep and get a couple of big overs which we could not get. [On Shami’s spell] I feel sorry for him. If you bowl like that, then you get the team on 129, I think batters are disappointed. I don’t think the ball did a lot. I think it’s just that Mohammed Shami’s skill set which he has and he made the ball talk.
Otherwise, I think for fast bowlers, the wicket did not have much assistance. But the way he bowled four on the trot and got us in the game, full credit. As I said, batters and particularly myself did not finish and we disappointed him. It’s still a lot of games left. We’ll take all the learnings from this game and rectify it a little better and move on. We have won a lot of games from the same position. We are still at the top of the table but we need to keep playing good cricket. Today, we did not finish the game.”
Ishant Sharma: “Even in the nets when I bowl with the new ball, I was practicing bowling wide yorkers. Today, I think the hard work pays off. I just backed myself and bowled wide yorkers. Coaches do that. There’s a lot of time we spend in preparation, planning for certain batsmen which balls to bowl to them. It’s all about backing yourself. I don’t think about how many people are watching. It’s all about executing those single balls every single time when you are on the field. So I was just backing myself to bowl this wide yorker. [On facing Tewatia] I’ve played enough cricket with him so I was just having fun with him.
I knew he was going to know what my short ball is, so I knew I had to double-bluff him. Otherwise, I knew he was the type of batsman who can finish the game for Gujarat. So I was double bluffing him and bowling the balls. [On defending 129] It is what it is. We don’t really think about what target we have on the board. It’s just about bowling your balls and executing your plans to the batsmen. From here on, we just carry the momentum and look to win one game at a time and hope for the best in the future.”
Gujarat Titans vs Delhi Capitals Highlights today, Tuesday 2-5-2023. 44th Match (N), Indian Premier League 2023, Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.
Toss: Capitals chose to bat.
Gujarat Titans team: 1 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 2 Abhinav Manohar, 3 Hardik Pandya (capt.), 4 Vijay Shankar, 5 David Miller, 6 Rahul Tewatia, 7 Rashid Khan, 8 Noor Ahmad, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Mohit Sharma, 11 Josh Little.
Delhi Capitals team: 1 David Warner (capt.), 2 Phil Salt, 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Rilee Rossouw, 5 Priyam Garg, 6 Ripal Patel, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Aman Khan, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Anrich Nortje, 11 Ishant Sharma.
Head to Head In T20’s: 2
Gujarat Titans Won: 2
Delhi Capitals Won: 0
Form guide
(last five completed Matches, most recent first)
Gujarat Titans WWWLW
Delhi Capitals LWWLL
Match Timings: 2:00 PM GMT | 7:30 PM Local
Umpires – Michael Gough, Rohan Pandit
TV Umpire – KN Ananthapadmanabhan
Match Referee – Narayanan Kutty
Reserve Umpire – Parashar Joshi
Match number – IPL 2023 – 44th Match
IPL Points Table
Pitch and weather: Expect a batting-friendly track. The ground dimensions could be a factor based on which pitch is used. It should be a dry evening.
