New Delhi [India], April 25 : Delhi Capitals (DC) assistant coach Pravin Amre showered praise on skipper Rishabh Pant's 44-run knock against Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 and said that the wicketkeeper-batter is in "good form".
Pant smashed 44 runs from 35 balls at a strike rate of 125.71. He slammed 5 fours and 1 overhead boundary during his time on the crease. Meanwhile, DC clinched a 4-run win over GT on Wednesday at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
While speaking at the post-match press conference, Amre said that a few good knocks earlier in the tournament boosted the DC skipper's confidence.
"A couple of good knocks gave him the confidence, and today's was special. He single-handedly got 31 runs against an experienced bowler like Mohit Sharma in the 20th over and that really shows that he is in good form," Amre was quoted in a release from DC as saying.
Speaking on Axar Patel's batting at number 3, the assistant coach added that the team management planned to give him some chance with the batting.
"The idea was to give him some chance. So, the plan was to let Indian batsmen go and take on Sai Kishore in the powerplay... He showed maturity in batting. I think that's the reason we got 96 runs in the last five overs," he added.
Summarizing the match, Gujarat won the toss and opted to bowl first. After a swift start from openers, Jake Fraser McGurk (23) and Prithvi Shaw (11), DC was restricted to 44/3. Then, Axar Patel (66) and Rishabh Pant launched a counterattack on GT. In the death overs, Pant joined forces with Tristan Stubbs (26*) to destroy GT's death bowling. Pant finished at 88* in 43 balls, with five fours and eight sixes.
DC was 224/4 in their 20 overs. Sandeep Warrier (3/15) was the pick of the bowlers for GT.
In the run-chase, GT lost skipper Shubman Gill early. A counter-attack was once again in the works as Wriddhiman Saha (39) and Sai Sudarshan (65) had an 82-run partnership. In the later stages, David Miller (55), Sai Kishore (13) and Rashid Khan (21*) put pressure on DC bowlers, but the hosts held their nerves to win the game by four runs, restricting GT to 220/8 in their 20 overs.
Rasikh Salam (3/44) and Kuldeep Yadav (2/29) were among the top bowlers for DC.
DC is at the sixth spot in the points table, with four wins, five losses and eight points. On the other hand, GT is at the seventh spot with the same win-loss and points, but an inferior net run rate.