‘Sad we couldn’t stay with Rishabh’
Rishabh Pant played as good an innings as you’ll see. So, yeah, it was just a case of someone to stay with him.
Delhi Daredevils wicketkeeper, Sam Billings, believes his team would have defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore in the team’s opening game in the Indian Premier League if even one batsman had supported youngster Rishabh Pant.
Pant smashed a 37-ball 57 but got little support from the other batsmen. He was out attempting a big shot after Daredevils went into the final over needing 19 runs to win. RCB eventually won by 15 runs.
GET SET, GO ON
“If you’re batting in the top four like myself, I got 25. Actually, I did all the hard work and then got out.
“So I think it gets more disappointing for guys who get in and don’t quite see it through like me and (opener Aditya) Tare, who got off to a great start as well,” Billings said at a media interaction on Monday, ahead of the team’s second game against Rising Pune Supergiant.
“You look at the power towards the end of our batting, I mean, Rishabh Pant played as good an innings as you’ll see. It was just a case of someone staying with him. So, it’s a batting line-up with full of potential. We should have won that game, but as long as we learn from our mistakes, it’s all good,” said the English player, the only batsman other than Pant to cross 20 in that game.
BOWLERS BLAMELESS
Billings credited the Daredevils bowling line-up for restricting RCB to 157. Chris Morris was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets while skipper Zaheer Khan took two. Against a strong Pune Supergiant batting line-up, Billings pinned his hopes on the bowlers to come out on top again.
“(Off-spinner) Jayant Yadav has done phenomenally well in the Test series against England Amit Mishra is the second high est wicket-taker in the IPL Shahbaz Nadeem bowled bril liantly and was probably the pick of our bowlers in Banga lore,” he said. “We’ve really got a good pace attack in the form of Kagiso Rabada, Chris Morris Pat Cummins and Zaheer, al experienced.”
Daredevils lost both matches against the newly formed Pune Supergiant in 2016, but Billings isn’t worried. “There’s no weak side. Every line-up has power hitters. At the end of the day, we can prepare for certain people in their side. If we turn up and play as well as we can, there’s no team that can beat us… but away from home, it’s going to be tough.