“Never thought we were out of the game”: Shubman Gill

Despite a heart-wrenching 4-run loss to Delhi Capitals (DC), Gujarat Titans (GT) captain Shubman Gill praised his team for displaying “great character” in their IPL 2024 encounter at Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday. The game saw Rishabh Pant spearhead Delhi with an unbeaten 88, leading to a close victory.

Delhi set a challenging target of 225, powered by standout innings from Pant (88 not out from 43 balls) and Axar Patel (66 from 43 balls). In response, GT fell just short, finishing at 220/8 despite rapid fifties from Sai Sudarshan (65 off 29) and David Miller (55 off 23). In the nail-biting final over, Rashid Khan nearly clinched it for GT, but Mukesh Kumar maintained his composure to secure DC’s fourth win of the season.

Reflecting on the match, Gill expressed his pride in his team’s performance and their relentless pursuit, despite the setback. “I think we played some really good cricket, disappointing to lose in the end, but great character was shown by everyone. Great fight till the end and we never thought we were out of the game at any point. When you’re chasing 224, there’s no point in talking about plans, just go out and score runs,” Gill stated during the post-match presentation.

He also commented on the tactical aspects of the game, highlighting the role of the Impact Player rule in today’s high-scoring matches. “I think an impact player has a bit of a role (in making the matches high scoring), even if you lose extra wickets, the extra cushion is there for the batters to keep going and it gives the license for the batters to keep going till the end,” he explained.

Gill admitted that his team had aimed to limit DC to around 200 but acknowledged that the final overs allowed too many runs. “At one stage, we thought we would be able to restrict them to 200-210, but we gave away some extra runs in the last 2-3 overs. But this is a smallish ground, we spoke about the same when we went out to chase,” he said, suggesting that the target was within reach.

The GT skipper stressed the importance of precise execution, especially in the closing stages of the game. “Execution becomes very important, if there’s a set batter or a finisher, you’ll have to execute well. It’s okay if there’s something in the wicket, but on pitches like this, you’ll have to make sure that you execute all your plans perfectly, be it the yorkers or the variations,” Gill concluded.

With this loss, Gujarat slipped to seventh place in the points table. The 2022 champions will look to regroup and aim for a win in their upcoming match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday.