"Never thought we were out of the game": Shubman Gill after narrow 4-run defeat against DC

Rishabh Pant dazzled with an unbeaten 88 as Delhi defeated Gujarat by 4 runs in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match here at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday.

Put to bat, Pant (88 not out of 43 balls) and Axar Patel's (66 off 43 balls) fifties powered Delhi Capitals to 224/4. In the run chase, Sai Sudarshan (65 off 29 ) and David Miller (55 off 23) slammed fifties but their efforts were not able to take GT over the line, finishing at 220/8 in their 20 overs.

Rashid Khan nearly managed to get it done in the last over, but Mukesh Kumar just held his nerve to deliver the Capitals their fourth win of the season.

Gill said his team played some great cricket and he is "very proud" of the way his team played. The 24-year-old was just a little disappointed to not get over the line.

"I think we played some really good cricket, disappointing to lose in the end, but great character was shown by everyone. Great fight till the end and we never thought we were out of the game at any point. When you're chasing 224, there's no point in talking about plans, just go out and score runs," Shubman Gill said in a post-match presentation.

The GT skipper mentioned that the Impact Player rule contains a role to play in the big scores in recent times as the teams can go big in the middle overs even after losing wickets.

"I think an impact player has a bit of a role (in making the matches high scoring), even if you lose extra wickets, the extra cushion is there for the batters to keep going and it gives the license for the batters to keep going till the end," he added.

Gill added that they looked to restrict the opposition to somewhere around 200 but gave away a few runs, stating that given the dimensions of the ground, the 224 was chasable.

"At one stage, we thought we would be able to restrict them to 200-210, but we gave away some extra runs in the last 2-3 overs. But this is a smallish ground, we spoke about the same when we went out to chase," Gill said.

The 24-year-old stated that execution was very crucial when there was a set batter in the death overs, saying that when the wicket is as good as it was in Delhi, it became a difficult game for the bowler.

"Execution becomes very important, if there's a set batter or a finisher, you'll have to execute well. It's okay if there's something in the wicket, but on pitches like this, you'll have to make sure that you execute all your plans perfectly, be it the yorkers or the variations," he added.

With four wins in the nine matches, Gujarat slipped to seventh place in the points table. The 2022 champions will next take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on their home ground at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. (ANI)