Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan took a dig at Rishabh Pant after Delhi Capitals’ loss against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on Monday (April 29).
KKR beat DC by seven wickets to get back to winning ways and improve their playoff chances. DC captain Rishabh Pant raised a few eyebrows when he decided to bat first at a venue where teams had posted high batting figures of 224 and 262 in the last few games.
Before coming to Kolkata, DC had won their last two matches batting first and decided to bat first against KKR too. However, the decision backfired spectacularly as the Delhi team was clearly outplayed by the home team.
Match report in brief:
Opening up, the Rishabh Pant-led side managed only 153/9 in the allotted 20 overs. DC lost the wickets of Prithvi Shaw, Jake Fraser-McGurk and Shai Hope in the powerplay and simply couldn’t recover. At one point they were 111 for 8 before an unbeaten 35-run knock from Kuldeep Yadav took them to a respectable 153.
In response, KKR arrived at the total with utmost ease. In-form opener Phil Salt brought the game to a close by hitting a 26-ball fifth and sharing a 79-run stand with Sunil Narine in just 37 balls for the first wicket. KKR finally crossed the finish line in the 17th over and once again claimed their sixth win in nine games this season.
Irfan Pathan from DC unimpressed:
With Rishabh Pant and his DC teammates unable to justify their decision to bat first, Irfan Pathan made it clear that he was not impressed with the ball. The former cricketer took to X (formerly Twitter) to weigh in on Rishabh Pant’s decision to bat first as he wrote:
“I’m still trying to understand why Delhi bats first.”
I’m still trying to understand why Delhi bats first.
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 29, 2024
Rishabh Pant on the first strike:
At the end of the game, Rishabh Pant spoke about his decision to bat first after winning the toss. He called it a good option before dismissing his batters’ failure to deliver with the bat.
“It was a good option to bat first. As a batting unit we didn’t bat well, 150 was below where we were at. But we learn from our mistakes, not every day is your day.” said Rishabh Pant.
“The way we performed as a team was good (we won 4 out of the last 5 games) but these games are in T20. I think anything around 180-210 would have been a good result, we didn’t give our best.” “The bowlers have enough runs to defend themselves,” he added.