 "Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pant scored 18 in his first competitive match in 15 months. Sportzpics")
Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant admitted he was nervous walking out to bat in his comeback match 15 months after surviving a car accident, but expressed satisfaction over his performance against the Punjab Kings on Saturday.
Pant could only manage 18 off 13 deliveries including two boundaries during DC’s opening game of the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL), against PBKS at their brand new home venue in Mullanpur. The wicketkeeper-batter however, also pulled off a sharp stumping besides a catch, giving a fair indication of the fact that he was slowly regaining his old touch.
“Personally I was pretty nervous (while batting) but you have to go through this when you enter the field. This isn’t the first time being nervous, but happy about that (return overall),” Pant said at the post-match press conference about his return.
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Pant didn’t get the desired result in his comeback match and Ishant Sharma’s unfortunate ankle twist left him with a bowler short at the death.
“Ishant’s injury was clearly evident because we were anyway one player short because we lagged with the batting a bit. I think we had a par score but because we were one bowler short, because of an injury, can’t do much about it,” he admitted.
With Ishant’s two overs at his disposal, Pant had to use Mitchell Marsh, who isn’t as sharp a bowler he used to be and Sumit Kumar, making his IPL debut was overawed by the occasion.
Impact Shorts
View All“Wicket played as we expected to play, can’t make excuses. We will learn from it but having one bowler short is never good. We were short in terms of extra bowler. We actually pulled it back in the end (but couldn’t complete the job). It is part and parcel of the game,” the skipper said.
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He was all praise for young Abhishek Porel, whose unbeaten 32 off 10 balls gave his team something to fight for.
“Abhishek came in and chipped in with a few runs which were crucial. It was an amazing innings, congrats to him. I think it’s just his third or fourth game but the kind of impact he made was huge. Really looking forward to seeing him this season,” Pant said.
PBKS skipper Shikhar Dhawan was satisfied with the performance of his side, and particularly praised Sam Curran (63 off 47) and Liam Livingstone (38 not out off 21) for their efforts.
“This is the first time I’m playing at this level since the last IPL. I felt we leaked a few extra runs, of course extra nerves are there in the first match. It’s normal. Felt the wicket got better during the chase. Sam played well and Livingstone finished it beautifully,” he said.
With PTI inputs