Published: May 05, 2017, 10:25 AM (IST)
Edited: May 05, 2017, 10:25 AM (IST)
It is never easy for a captain to lose a Twenty20 (T20) match after posting a mammoth 208 runs on the board. He invariably falls short of words while describing such defeats. Something similar happened to Gujarat Lions’ (GL) skipper Suresh Raina, whose side went down to the high-flying Delhi Daredevils (DD) in a high-coring match at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium on Thursday. After setting DD a massive 209 to win, Raina must have been confident of a victory. However, Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson denied his side a victory in match 42 of the Indian Premier League (IPL). FULL CRICKET SCORECARD, Delhi Daredevils (DD) vs Gujarat Lions (GL), IPL 2017 – Match 42 at Delhi
While Pant hammered 43-ball 97, Samson played a fine knock of 61 runs from just 31 balls. Praising their effort, Raina said at the post-match presentation ceremony that it was ‘Pant day’ and that the two are future of Indian batting. “Pant day, he batted very well. They’re the future of the Indian team,” Raina said. “206 was defendable. We didn’t bowl really well. We don’t have that experience with the old ball. Tye has done well, Bravo isn’t there,” he added. FULL CRICKET UPDATES, Delhi Daredevils (DD) vs Gujarat Lions (GL), IPL 2017 – Match 42 at Delhi
Raina explained how his side missed out on the basics. “Important to bowl dot balls, we tried everything, slower balls, the ball was reversing but that time, the game was over. We were 20-runs short,” he said suggesting what went wrong. This is, interestingly, for the first time in his IPL career that Raina’s side has not made the knockouts.
