DC assistant coach Pravin Amre focuses on ‘positives’ after defeat against Punjab Kings

Mullanpur (Punjab) [India], March 24 (ANI): After suffering a defeat against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Saturday in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, Delhi Capitals’ (DC) assistant coach Pravin Amre said that they are looking at the “positives” from the match.

While commenting on the match, Amre said that the Delhi-based franchise’s batting was good in the first inning. He added that they were in a “good position” in the game while batting.

“Not the start we wanted, every team wants to start on a winning note. But there are a lot of positives from the game, our intent in batting was good. We were in a good position, then back-to-back wickets in the middle overs caused us but came back. We can also see the positive about Abishek Porel, the guy who came in and scored runs at a strike rate of more than 300. He got us to the par score of 170 plus,” Amre was quoted in a release from DC as saying.

When asked about Ishant Sharma’s injury, the assistant coach added that the pacer’s injury caused them in bowling section.

“In the bowling, I think Ishant’s injury caused us and we all know catches win matches. We dropped a couple of crucial catches and maybe the outcome would have been different. When you lose your main bowler it becomes difficult to contain them, but you have to credit Sam and Liam for the way they batted and finished the game,” he added.

Coming to the match, PBKS put DC to bat after winning the toss. Fiery knocks on top by David Warner (29 in 21 balls, with three fours and two sixes) and Mitchell Marsh (20 in 12 balls, with two fours and two sixes) helped DC start well, but they lost their way. Rishabh Pant made 18 off 13 balls in his comeback game. DC was struggling at 147/8, but an explosive cameo from Abhishek Porel (32 in 10 balls, with four boundaries and two sixes) took DC to 174/9 in 20 overs.

Arshdeep Singh (2/28) and Harshal Patel (2/43) were the top bowlers for PBKS.

In the chase of 175, skipper Shikhar Dhawan (22 in 16 balls, with four boundaries) started off well. Prabhsimran Singh also contributed a useful 26 in 17 balls with five fours. But it was the 67-run partnership for fifth wicket between Sam Curran (63 in 47 balls, with six fours and a six) and Liam Livingstone (38* in 23 balls, with two fours and three sixes) sealed a four-wicket win for PBKS.

Kuldeep Yadav (2/20) and Khaleel Ahmed (2/43) were the top bowlers for DC. Curran won the ‘Player of the Match’ for his knock. (ANI)