Shubman Gill refused to blame the pitch for GT’s collapse against DC and instead pointed fingers towards the poor shot selection of his batters.
Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill made no attempts to hide his disappointment after his side was bowled out for the lowest score of IPL 2024 against the Delhi Capitals at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. GT were shot out for 89 in 17.3 overs. It was also GT’s lowest total in the tournament. To rub salt into their wounds, DC then chased the target down in just 8.4 overs with six wickets in the bank.
Gujarat Titans’ captain Shubman Gill(AFP)
Gill refused to blame the pitch for GT’s collapse and instead pointed fingers towards the poor shot selection of his batters.
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“Our batting performance was very average,” Gill, who was out for 8, said at the post-match presentation. “I think the wicket was alright, to be honest. If you see our dismissals, the ball I got out to had nothing to do with the pitch. Even the way Wriddhi [Wriddhiman Saha] bhai got out had nothing to do with the pitch, and Sai [Sudharsan] got run out. So I don’t think it had anything to do with the pitch. Just a bad batting performance and poor shot selection, I would say.”
This was the second time GT’s batting unit came a cropper in this IPL. They were bowled out for 130 while chasing 164 against the Lucknow Super Giants. Gill felt his bowlers didn’t have any chance to come into the game because of the low score. “When the opposition are chasing 89, unless someone takes a double hat-trick, the opposition will always be in the game.”
This heavy defeat meant GT slumped to the 7th spot in the IPL 2024 points table with just two wins in seven matches. DC jumped to the sixth spot because of the huge net run rate boost they got by finishing the match inside 9 overs. Gill, however, was not ready to press the panic button yet.
“This is just the halfway mark of the season for us, we have won 3 and hopefully we win another 5-6 from the next 7 like in the last couple of years,” he said.
Mukesh Kumar, Ishant Sharma shine for DC
DC pacer Mukesh Kumar stood out with figures of 3-14. It all started when veteran fast bowler Ishant Sharma dismissed captain Shubman Gill for eight in the second over of the match and Gujarat kept losing wickets to some disciplined bowling.
The fielding remained impressive after Sumit Kumar sent back Sai Sudarshan for 12 with a direct throw at the non-striker’s end.
Pant was nimble behind the stumps and started with a diving catch to dismiss David Miller off Ishant.
The wicketkeeper affected two stumpings when his quick work sent back Abhinav Manohar, for eight, and Shahrukh Khan, for a duck in th espace of three balls off South African spinner Tristan Stubbs.
Gujarat slipped to 66-7, but Rashid Khan resisted from one end with his gritty 31 off 24 balls before he fell caught behind with Pant taking a regulation catch behind the stumps.
Gujarat’s total is the lowest this season in contrast to some big scores including two record highs of 277 and then 287 by Sunrisers Hyderabad.
