Sunil Gavaskar’s motivational words to Rishabh Pant was absolute gold after Sunrisers Hyderabad decimated Delhi Capitals in Saturday’s IPL match.
Delhi Capitals were in for a rough evening as Sunrisers Hyderabad feasted on their bowling attack en route to scoring 266/7 – their third 250-plus total of the season – and setting the stage for a handsome 67 run win. Once again, the dynamic duo of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma smashed all sorts of records, including the highest Powerplay score in the history of IPL – 125/0 – and many more, leaving a distraught DC captain Rishabh Pant short of answers. The Capitals tried, but how often do you see a total as humongous as 267 chased down? Despite their efforts, DC were all out for 199, with Jake Fraser-McGurk’s 65 off 18 and a couple of 40s from captain Pant himself and Abhishek Porel not enough to save them the blushes.
Rishabh Pant scored 44 but it came off 35 balls. (AFP)
After the match, as Pant cut a disappointed figure during the post-match interview explaining what went wrong, Sunil Gavaskar asked the India youngster to keep his chin up in a brilliant show of motivation. Pant was replying to Ian Bishop with the nuances of the game, talking about how he expected dew to play a part, only to be proven wrong when the legendary Gavaskar chipped in the following.
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“Rishabh, Sunil here. I have never seen you down, I don’t ever want to see you down. I want to just see a smile on your face. Never mind the result. Go ahead, because there are plenty of matches to come.”
Watch the clip below:
As intended, Gavaskar’s words brought a smile on Pant’s face as he promised to roar back: “Definitely sir, I will try my level best. Hopefully we will come up with more thought-process and a clear mindset,” said the India wicketkeeper.
The defeat was Delhi’s fifth of the season, which places them 7th on the points-table, while SRH surged to second with 10 points. Coming back to the decision to bowl first after winning the toss, Pant admitted it was an error on his part as he failing to read the conditions properly.
“The only thought process behind that was we thought there would be some dew but it didn’t come. I thought if we could restrict them to 220-230 we would be in with a chance. I think powerplay was the difference. We were just catching up throughout the match. That was the massive difference,” he said.
Pant on Fraser-McGurk
Pant wrapped up the post-match interview by mentioning Fraser-McGurk who in just three matches, has taken IPL 2024 by storm. With scores of 55 off 35 balls, followed by the fastest fifty by a Capitals player last evening, the 22-year-old is emerging as one of the brightest prospects. Pant and the rest of the unit cannot wait to watch more from him as they try and regroup from this loss.
“He’s been batting phenomenal; he is coming nicely for us. That is what you want. Sticking together as a time at the hardest time. We have to look at the areas we can improve and come back in the next game.”
