Published: May 13, 2017, 12:03 PM (IST)
Edited: May 13, 2017, 12:01 PM (IST)
The race for the playoffs heated up with Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) struggling to chase a competitive target of 168 set by Delhi Daredevils (DD) at Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi on Friday. Manoj Tiwary and Ben Stokes had the game under control with their partnership in the middle overs. However, the DD bowlers bounced back and secured successive wickets. The momentum went back to DD. RPS needed 25 off the final over. With Tiwary on strike, he struck consecutive boundaries off Pat Cummins, bringing the equation down to 13 off 4 deliveries. Cummins conceded a wide, providing an extra opportunity to RPS. Two consecutive dot balls and just a boundary, followed by Tiwary’s dismissal, lead to RPS losing the game by 7 runs. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: Delhi Daredevils (DD) vs Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS), IPL 2017, Match 52 at Delhi
Yet, Tiwary took the blame of RPS’ loss and also termed the wicket slow while talking to iplt20.com/BCCI. “I want to take the complete blame for that because I was the batsman who was set on the crease. Prior to the last over, we could not get any boundaries. I was the batsman on strike and was unable to connect. But at one point of time, the match was in our hands. We tried our best. But we need to look back and check what went wrong. We as batsmen could have scored more runs. We need to comeback harder in the next game,” Tiwary said.
On the rarest dismissal of MS Dhoni, Tiwary credited Mohammed Shami. “Dhoni mentioned that he could not see where the ball went. That is the reason he could not make it on time. Even quickest of the person gets run-out and today was one of those days. When things are not meant to go your way, these situations come up. But the credit goes to Shami who took this risk. Had that ball not hit the stumps, it would have been an extra run for us,” quipped Tiwary.
On a two-paced Kotla pitch, Tiwary said, “The wicket was a bit slow. It was gripping a bit for spinners. That was the plan for DD as they played an extra spinner. We know the nature of Delhi wicket. Today it was gripping. The last match we played here, there was no spin. It was a drastic change in the nature of the wicket. I am a firm believer of batting first on such wickets. I would take the blame for the loss as was unable to connect for few more boundaries in the end.”
