Irfan Pathan Hailed Delhi Capitals With A Special Tweet: A 5-wicket loss handed to them by the Mumbai Indians meant the Delhi Capitals failed to qualify for the playoffs as they finished the league stage with 14 points, behind the Royal Challengers Bangalore who finished at the fourth spot with 16 points.
Delhi would have gone into the playoffs, overtaking RCB, had they defeated Mumbai but fielding and tactical mistakes cost them the game as MI chased down 160 with 5 balls and to spare after being 44/1 after 9 overs.
Delhi have been criticised heavily for their loss to MI and for their failure of reaching the playoffs despite having a strong and complete unit.
Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan, though, pointed out that the Capitals camp had been hit with a number of crises – unavailability of players, injury, covid-19, etc.
The likes of Mitchell Marsh and David Warner missed the start of the season due to national duties; Marsh was indeed also injured and then went down with covid-19, missing 6 games in all; opener Prithvi Shaw missed four matches due to typhoid; fast bowler Anrich Nortje played only 6 matches this season due to injury.
Irfan Pathan admitted that Delhi haven’t played their best cricket – but also lauded the side for keeping themselves in the playoff race till their last match despite so many issues throughout the season.
“Yes not the best cricket Delhi played today. But despite the COVID scare, injury issues they played well and kept themselves in the frame till the last game,” Pathan tweeted.
Yes not the best cricket Delhi played today. But despite the COVID scare, injury issues they played well and kept themselves in the frame till the last game.
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) May 21, 2022
DC head coach Ricky Ponting felt that the batting was a big letdown for them in their must-win game against MI: Delhi were 50/4 inside 9 overs before Pant and Powell did really well to drag them to 159.
“I mean you can rewind the clock all the way back to the start of the game as well, when our top-order batting was so poor. I think we were four down for 30 or 40 [50] early on. That’s not an ideal start to a T20 game either, especially a big game that we knew we had to win,” Ponting said after the game.
