Ahmedabad, April 19 Delhi Capitals' skipper Axar Patel believes their seven-wicket defeat against Gujarat Titans on Saturday can be attributed to his side falling ‘10-15 runs short’ while setting the total which proved to be the difference in the day.
DC were cruising at 173-4, and with just three overs left, fans at the Narendra Modi Stadium here were expecting them to go all out. But Prasidh Krishna’s late spell which dismissed Axar and Vipraj Nigam on consecutive deliveries handed heavy blows to the visitors and solid death bowling by Ishant Sharma and Sai Kishore restricted them to 203/8 in 20 overs.
Axar believes the reason for Delhi’s loss was the fall of regular wickets but it was not a concerning outing and they will not dwell on the game for much longer.
"I think we were 10-15 runs short. I think that made the difference. When we wanted to accelerate, we kept losing set batters, and we lost momentum, and we couldn't finish how we wanted. Even if we got a couple more hits away in the last over, we could have restricted them,” said Axar Patel in the post-match interview.
“We bowled well, but if we were a little better with our catching and fielding, it would have been good, but we were short with our target. We won't think much about this loss. We just need to learn what more we could have done and not make the same mistakes next time," he added.
Gujarat skipper Shubman Gill also expressed similar sentiments and applauded his bowlers for pulling back the game in their favour after they became the first team in IPL history to successfully chase down a 200+ target against this opposition.
“At one point, it looked like the total was going to be 220-230. The way we pulled back, credit to the bowlers. Even in the first game, chasing around 245, we were right in the game and lost by just 10 runs. We've been chasing well, we've been defending well. They were ahead in the game, with Axar batting, it was difficult to hit the fast bowlers, so we thought we'll continue with them,” said Gill.
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