Due to a horrific car accident last year in December, the Indian wicket-keeper batter, Rishabh Pant is currently out of action and it may take him almost a year to make his return to professional cricket. However, in Delhi’s first home match of IPL 2023 against Gujarat Titans, the southpaw was present in the Arun Jaitley Stadium and even met some of the players of both teams after the match.
In a video shared by Delhi Capitals on their social media, it could be seen that the 25-year-old spent quite some time with head coach Ricky Ponting and was also spotted having a chat with stand-in skipper David Warner. Axar Patel, meanwhile, was spotted having a fun banter with Pant while some of Gujarat Titans’ players including Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha came to visit the cricketer in DC’s dressing room. GT coach Ashish Nehra was seen talking to Pant as well.
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In the match, Gujarat Titans registered a rather dominating win owing to a brilliant batting display from youngster Sai Sudharsan. Chasing 163 runs, GT needed a strong start but unfortunately, the visiting side lost three quick wickets of Saha, Gill and Hardik Pandya.
Core memory created 🥹❤️
📽️ | #QilaKotla homecoming made special after #RP17 met with our boys in the dressing room after #DCvGT! #YehHaiNayiDilli #IPL2023 pic.twitter.com/5KMqTQ1wTp
— Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) April 5, 2023
After the early dismissals, Sai Sudarshan rose up to the occasion and scored a match-winning half-century to bail Gujarat out of a difficult situation. David Miller supported him well in the middle, as the South Africa international smashed 31* runs off 16 deliveries. With that, Gujarat chased down the total with almost two overs to spare and DC suffered its second consecutive loss of the season.
Meanwhile, after the match, Sudharsan opened up and stated that he was not under pressure the whole time and was concentrating more on the kind of shots he wanted to play.
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As per the quotes in Cricbuzz, Sai Sudharsan explained, “A little bit nervous as this is my first time here. I was thinking what has to be done right. I wasn’t under pressure, I was just calculating the right things. It was a bit low and skidding through, I was thinking to take the right options. My plan was to take the game deep and taking it through. Weathering the storm early on (was more satisfying). It was quite difficult, it was seaming initially, that was the highlight for me.”