Indian Premier League’s group stage matches end today and qualifiers are expected to begin on the 24th of May with Gujarat Titans and Rajasthan Royals clashing at the Eden Gardens. Rishabh Pant‘s side needed a win in Saturday’s (May 21) game against the Mumbai Indians(MI) to qualify for the playoffs. However, they were handed a five-wicket defeat, which allowed the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to make the grade ahead of them.
Rishabh Pant of the Delhi Capitals was the second-highest run-scorer in the first innings of their must-win IPL 2022 match against the Mumbai Indians. However, in the second innings, he failed to turn two crucial moments of the game in his team’s favour. The first was in the 12th over when Dewald Brevis, batting in the middle order, attempted to take on Kuldeep Yadav just after he had taken Ishan Kishan’s crucial wicket. Brevis got a top-edge that flew high into the air, almost between the wicketkeeper and the bowler. Rishabh was under the ball quickly and before Kuldeep, Pant was looking confident enough to grab that. But, he closed his hands fast and the ball popped out of his hand.
‘Baby AB’ was caught off the third ball of the 15th over by Shardul Thakur, bringing Tim David to the pitch. Thakur delivered a typical length ball outside off to David, who got a tight outside edge to the wicketkeeper. There was also a sound, but the umpire rejected the Capitals’ muffled appeal. Pant, Thakur, and others held a mini-conference but chose not to review it, only to grieve it while watching the highlights on the big screen. David then turned the match around with a stunning 11-ball 34 that included two fours and four sixes.
Aakash Chopra also blamed Delhi Capitals for their unfortunate exit from the IPL 2022. He explained: “Delhi were left afar because multiple things actually went wrong. It is also true that in the entire season, you have won two consecutive matches just once and here you had to win three consecutive. “They fell short. You can talk about the catch, the DRS that never happened but if you are not able to win eight matches in the entire season, you have to look slightly inwards, you realize that a lot of mistakes have happened many times.”