Published: Apr 12, 2023, 08:40 AM (IST)
Edited: Apr 12, 2023, 08:40 AM (IST)
New Delhi: Former India cricketer Irfan Pathan criticized Delhi Capitals captain David Warner after Mumbai Indians beat DC by six wickets at Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi. Australia’s star batter opened the innings for Delhi and played a slow knock of 51 off 47 balls against Rohit Sharma-led MI.
After winning the toss captain Rohit Sharma invited Delhi to bat first. Warner opened the batting for the hosts along with Prithvi Shaw. He started confidently by hitting a couple of cracking shots inside the powerplay but once Shaw was dismissed in the fourth over of the match runs also dried up from Warner’s bat.
The Aussie slammed his third fifty of the season and 58th of his overall IPL career. The wickets were trembling on the other hand. Delhi witnessed a mini top-order collapse but things were looking to change when he was joined by his deputy Axar Patel.
Patel who came to bat at number six has smashed a quickfire century in 22 balls. The left-handed batter is in lethal form, and helped his team to post a decent total.
While Patel was smashing boundaries from his bat, Warner kept struggling on the other end. He was eventually dismissed for 51 off 47 balls, at a strike rate of 108.51, and left his team in the stumble.
Reacting to Warner’s knock, Irfan Pathan tweeted, “How come no one pointing out a strike rate of David Warner?? He is been playing with a low strike for quite some time now.”
How come no one pointing out strike rate of David Warner?? He is been playing with low strike for quite sometime now…
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 11, 2023
Earlier, former India cricketer Harbhajan Singh – Irfan’s former India teammate and fellow commentator – also criticised Warner’s batting against Mumbai.
After Warner’s dismissal, Harbhajan said, “He was never looking in the zone. He struggled with the bat and there wasn’t the intent to go ballistic from a batter of Warner’s calibre. It was surprising and Delhi might pay the price for his slow batting performance.”
Brief Scores: Delhi Capitals 172 in 19.4 overs (Axar Patel 54, David Warner 51; Piyush Chawla 3/22, Jason Behrendorff 3/23) lost to Mumbai Indians 173/4 in 20 overs (Rohit Sharma 65, Tilak Varma 41; Mukesh Kumar 2/30, Mustafizur Rahman 1/38) by six wickets
