
Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya blamed himself after a shocker of a loss against Delhi Capitals. Notably, Delhi defended a paltry score of 130 and won by five runs at GT's home ground in Ahmedabad.
"I tried my best but could not capitalise. It boils down to me. Obviously, we would have taken 129 on any given day. (We) just lost a couple of wickets and at the end, Rahul (Tewatia) got us back in the game," he said at the post-match presentation.
"I don't think the [track] played much role. It was a tad slower than what we are used to here. But they bowled really well. We lost a couple of early wickets and then we had to take some time. We could not get the rhythm in the middle. Rahul brought us back into the game. Otherwise, they were quite ahead," added Hardik.
The skipper felt sorry, especially for fast bowler Mohammed Shami whotore apart Delhi's batting line-up to leave them reeling five down for 23 in five overs. Shami finished with stats of 4/11 in his four overs to help GT restrict DC to 130/8 in 20 overs.
"I feel sorry for (Shami)," Pandya sighed. “If you bowl like that, then you restrict the team to 129 (130), I think (our) batters are disappointed. I don't think the ball did a lot. It's just that Mohammed Shami's skillset he has and he made the ball talk. Otherwise, I think for fast bowlers, the wicket did not have much assistance. But the way he bowled four on the trot and got us in the game, full credit (to him). As I said, batters and particularly myself did not finish and we disappointed him,” he added.
Hardik's comments came after his unbeaten 53-ball 59 couldn't take his team home. Rahul Tewatia (20 off 7), as Pandya mentioned, turned the game around with three back-to-back sixes off Anrich Nortje in the penultimate over of the chase but GT couldn't capitalise on it as it failed to hunt down 12 runs in the final over.
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