The Delhi Capitals had a wonderful last night. By all measures, it was a fantastic outing. Many of the boxes were checked. It all began as Rishabh Pant’s team defeated one of the greatest teams in Indian Premier League history—the Chennai Super Kings—to earn their first victory of the year.
Pant came alive against Ruturaj Gaikwad’s team in Visakhapatnam after his batting in the first two games was, to put it mildly, heartbreaking. In his first game back with the squad this season, Prithvi Shaw seemed like a different player.
The game turned out to be decided by Pant’s 51 off 32 balls. It was especially significant that he struck out at Mustafizur Rahman and Matheesha Pathirana.
The fast bowler from Sri Lanka had effectively ended the Delhi innings by taking wickets off consecutive balls. With the yorkers bowled at 150 kmph, Michell Marsh and Tristan Stubbs could do nothing.
At that point, Delhi was probably looking at a score of 170 or so, which hasn’t usually been the winning score in this edition of the game. Against all odds, Pant hit two sixes and three fours from the 18th and 19th overs bowled by Rahman and Pathirana to give his team an extra 20 runs, which ultimately proved to be a game changer.
The news that Pant is back on track is something that all Delhi supporters should be happy about. It was excellent news from the Indian team’s perspective as well. Fans were curious as to whether Pant would be able to resurrect his inventiveness at the international level after he had not participated in any competitive cricket since a horrific car accident in December 2022.
In all honesty, he didn’t appear to be at his best in the opening two matches against Rajasthan Royals (28 off 26 balls) and Punjab Kings (18 off 13 balls). It seemed at times that he was unable to read the line of the ball as one would normally expect him to, which gave rise to fears that perhaps this wasn’t the same Pant that bowlers around the globe had feared a few years ago. that the Gabba Hero was no longer the same
After seeing him do what he did, especially against those two elite pace bowlers, fans would exhale with relief. Even though he is still not fully recovered, last night he seemed to be making progress. The first real indicator that he is getting back to where he was before his horrific car accident will be when he begins to consistently hit 85-90m sixes.
Delhi will be very happy with their performance overall. The league will undoubtedly become more accessible if they can carry on in this manner for the remainder of the games. Whether they are fans or organizers, that is what everyone would appreciate.
