Batting lacked responsibility, feels PBKS wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma following defeat against DC
May 17, 2022
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 17 : Following his side's 17-run defeat against Delhi Capitals, wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma said that the batting lacked responsibility during their 160-run chase against DC.
Mitchell Marsh struck a valuable 63 with the bat and Thakur's brilliant 4/36 with the ball, which included the wicket of Jitesh Sharma, who threatened to take the match from the Capitals in the death overs, helped the side seal an important 17-run win over PBKS to keep their playoff hopes alive.
"The pattern, the way we played was something that harmed us. We should have chased 160 runs on this pitch with the way our batting lineup is. Had one or two batters from the top order settled for long, we could have won the match," said Sharma during a post-match conference.
Regarding Kuldeep Yadav's spell and plans against him, Jitesh said that the bowler was given a wicket by the batter himself while the other wicket came through a great delivery. "We could have had attacked other bowlers and just got those 24 runs out of his 24 deliveries," he added.
On the reason why pacer Kagiso Rabada's spell was cut short by an over, Sharma said that the way the wicket was working led to them giving Rabada only three overs and one extra over to spinner Harpreet Brar.
Coming to the match, put to bat first by PBKS, DC scored a respectable 159/7 in their 20 overs, powered by Marsh (63), Sarfaraz Khan (32) and Lalit Yadav (24). The rest of the Capital's batting struggled against Punjab bowlers, with Liam Livingstone (3/27) and Arshdeep Singh (3/37) being the pick of the bowlers for PBKS.
Chasing 160, PBKS were off a solid start with Bairstow attacking, but soon its batting lineup collapsed. Jitesh Sharma (44) and Rahul Chahar (25) fought back, but Thakur's 4/36 meant that they were left 17-runs short of a win.
With this win, DC are now at fourth position in points tally with 14 points, with their next match against Mumbai Indians on May 21. While on the other hand, PBKS is at seventh with 12 points and their next game is against Sunrisers Hyderabad on May 22.
