IPL 2024: Rishabh Pant Aims to Learn from KKR Loss, ‘These Games Are Part of T20s

Kolkata Knight Riders cruised to an emphatic victory over Delhi Capitals at the Eden Gardens on Monday in the IPL 2024 season as the hosts restricted the tourists to a total of 153 for the loss of 9 wickets in 20 overs by Varun Chakraborty. Three-fer, Phil Salt starred with a brilliant innings of 68 before chasing down the target with 21 balls and 7 wickets to spare. DC skipper Rishabh Pant won the toss and elected to bat first but the capital city team never got going as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Kuldeep Yadav’s unbeaten 35 helped Delhi cross the 150-run mark while Pant added 27 for his side. After the loss, Pant opined that his team did not fare well as a batting unit and said the batsmen did not give the bowlers enough to try and defend.

“It was a good choice to bat first. But, as a batting unit we didn’t bat well, 150 was below par with how things were going,” said the 26-year-old. He added that his team was at least a good thirty or forty runs short, which would have helped them fight back in the second innings of the game. “I think anything around 180-210 would have been a good score, we didn’t give enough runs to our bowlers to defend,” he clarified.

However, he expressed that the side tried to learn from the loss and implement it going forward in the season.

“But we learn from our mistakes, every day is not your day,” Pant said. Delhi were in good form winning four of their past five outings to pick up eight points in the campaign, however, could not carry their momentum into the game at the famous Eden. Pant expressed that they played well as a team and such games are an inevitable part of the shortest format of the game. “The way we were going as a team was great, but these games come in T20s,” Pant said.