Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pant attributed Ishant Sharma’s injury as the reason for their inability to defend the target of 174 runs in their IPL 2024 match against the Punjab Kings. This match marked Pant’s return to cricket after a 15-month hiatus. It took place at the newly inaugurated stadium in Mullanpur, Punjab, which also made its IPL debut on Saturday.
Rishabh Pant Blamed Ishant Sharma’s Injury For Defeat Against PBKS
37-year-old Ishant Sharma, who took the wicket of PBKS captain Shikhar Dhawan and ran out Jonny Bairstow, got injured in the sixth over of the match. He had to leave the field due to his injury and couldn’t return to the game. This left Delhi Capitals with one bowler short, as they couldn’t bring in an Impact Player to replace him due to their earlier batting collapse.
Speaking in the post-match presentation, after PBKS defeated Delhi Capitals with four wickets in hand in the last over, Pant said: “Ishant’s injury was clearly evident because we were anyway one player short because we lagged with the batting a bit,”
Ishant’s injury forced Pant to rely more on Mitchell Marsh, who conceded 52 runs, and also use Sumit Kumar for a couple of overs. The original plan was to bring in Mukesh Kumar as an Impact player for added depth in bowling, but they had to alter the plan during the first innings. Abishek Porel was included as an extra batter after DC lost wickets and were struggling at 138 for 7 in 17.1 overs.
Sending Porel in as an Impact Player was a game-changer for DC. The young left-hander, who joined the DC squad last year as a replacement for the injured Pant, blasted 32 runs off just 10 balls, boosting DC’s total to 174.
“Abishek 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 added.
Pant scored 18 off 13 balls on his return to cricket.
Talking about his knock, Pant said: “Personally I was pretty nervous 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],” he said.
He added: “I think we had a par score but because we were one bowler short, because of an injury, can’t do much about it. The wicket played as we expected to play, can’t make excuses. We will learn from it but having one bowler short is never good. End of the day, well played to them [Kings] I guess.”
