Australia captain Michael Clarke, who won the 2015 World Cup, criticized Rishabh Pant’s tactics Delhi capitals‘ Loss against Kolkata Knight Riders last night.
KKR had hosted sixth-placed DC at Eden Gardens for a return match of the 2024 IPL season with the hosts winning the competition in a one-sided affair. The story remained largely the same for Rishabh Pant’s side in their second meeting against the Knight Riders.
In their previous match, Kolkata had defeated Delhi by a comfortable margin of 106 runs at the ACA-VDCA Stadium in Vishakhapatnam.
Why did Michael Clarke criticize Rishabh Pant?
Speaking to Star Sports in the post-match analysis of KKR vs DC last night, Michael Clarke went all out against visiting captain Rishabh Pant. Clarke didn’t like some of the decisions Pant made during the game, particularly his decision to bat first in the coin toss.
The surface at Eden Gardens wasn’t exactly a flat batting track last night, but it was enough to help the batsmen score more than 180.
However, Delhi’s in-form batting line-up, which had scored 252 in the last game against Mumbai Indians, panicked in front of KKR’s solid bowling department yesterday.
All the batters, including the dangerous Jake Fraser-McGurk and captain Rishabh Pant, failed to score even 20 runs. The entire batting order went to the dressing room without much fuss, with bottom man Kuldeep Yadav being the team’s top scorer against his former team.
Kuldeep Yadav scored 35 out of 26 which eventually helped Delhi put 153 points on the board, a result that seemed far away at a point of time. Kuldeep, who became Delhi’s top scorer last night, pretty much sums up how things were going for the Capitals.
Michael Clarke felt that firstly, Rishabh Pant should not have chosen to bat first. But since he did, the team should have continued their momentum and put at least 200 on the board. Clarke claimed that DC were well below 50 runs and that ultimately cost them the entire game.
“I’m not sure I agree with everything that was said after the game. You win, you do it right, you lose, and then you don’t do it right. I think he made a mistake when he decided to bat on this surface.” . And I don’t think they were 10 runs short, but 50 runs short.”
“There were 3.3 overs left in the run chase and KKR were down by just 3 wickets. KKR would have made at least another 40, if not 50. So I think DC needed 200 if they wanted to bat first.” – said Michael Clarke via Star Sports.
Phil Salt “attacks” his former IPL team
In response to Delhi’s target of 154, KKR were 100 above themselves in the tenth over. KKR’s English opener Phil Salt returned to haunt his former IPL team for the second time this season as he made 68 off just 33 hit.
Sunil Narine was silent as he walked out with a score of 15 while Rinku Singh failed to make the most of his promotion to No. 3 as he lost his wicket for 11.
Skipper Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer then led KKR to their sixth win of the season by taking the total within 16.3 overs.