Rishabh Pant Latest To Speak Against Impact Player Rule Despite Delhi Capitals Win Over Mumbai Indians
New Delhi: Despite winning by 10 runs against Mumbai Indians in a high-scoring thriller, Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pant minced no words against the contentious impact player rule which is making T20 cricket a nightmare for the bowlers. Due to Impact Player rule, the ongoing IPL 2024 has seen as many as ten 200-plus totals. In fact Delhi Capitals won back-to-back high-scoring matches in which chasing teams Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians came really close.
On Saturday, Delhi Capitals posted their highest-ever total in IPL – 257/4 and then managed to keep Mumbai Indians down to 247/9 despite some heavy-duty hitting by Tilak Varma, who scored 63 off 32 balls. “We were pretty happy with 250 on the board but with impact sub it is getting difficult each and every day,” Pant said at post-match presentation ceremony.
In order to stop the Mumbai Indians batters from stepping out, Pant stood up to likes of medium pacers Mukesh Kumar and Rasikh Dar. “Definitely, I can keep up to the stumps but the bowler also should be confident…. with batters like Tim David walking down, and today it worked,” he added.
The skipper was all praise for Jake Fraser-McGurk, who has taken the IPL Universe by storm with another brutal knock — 82 off 24 balls with 11 fours and six sixes. “He has been amazing since the first day and this is what you want from a younger player, he’s getting better and better with each game. The chances are increasing day by day, but we are taking it one game at a time.”
On the other hand, Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya admitted they lacked game awareness with southpaws like Nehal Wadhera and Tilak Varma not attacking left-arm spinner Axar Patel more. Axar conceded two sixes and a four in 12 deliveries and also restricted them to eight singles.
“We backed ourselves to chase this. We could have taken a couple of more chances in the middle overs. The left-handers could have probably gone after Axar (Patel) a little bit. It’s something we missed out in terms of game awareness.” He was amazed at Fraser-McGurk’s batting.
“It was quite amazing the way Fraser-McGurk batted, he took calculated risks, he played the field really well. It shows the fearlessness of youth,” he added.