Can't blame Mitchell Marsh, it was his first match in IPL 2022: DC skipper Rishabh Pant

Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant has come out in support of Mitchell Marsh following the latter’s dismal outing against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Playing his first match in IPL 2022, the Australian all-rounder looked nowhere near his best as he found it hard to get going. He even struggled to rotate the strike and hence, the required run rate went up significantly.

Marsh, who was making a comeback from injury, was eventually dismissed on the last ball of the 14th over for a 24-ball 14. Notably, DC were chasing 190 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. They even got off to a flying start with openers David Warner and Prithvi Shaw adding 50 runs inside the first five overs. However, Marsh’s struggle in the middle overs meant the scoring rate went down and DC eventually lost the contest by 16 runs.

Mitchell Marsh looked a bit rusty: Rishabh Pant

Although Pant admitted the right-handed batter was ‘rusty’, he said criticizing Marsh won’t be fair as he was making his maiden appearance this season. The wicketkeeper-batter also asserted that the other DC batters could also have done better in the middle overs.

“Can’t blame Marsh, it was his first match and looked a bit rusty, but we could have done better in the middle overs. The wicket got better and better as the innings went along,” said Pant in the post-match presentation. Meanwhile, wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik was DC’s biggest nemesis on the day as his whirlwind knock took RCB to a formidable total.

Coming to bat at number seven, the 36-year-old slammed 66 off just 34 deliveries, providing RCB the much-needed impetus. “I think we could bowl according to our plans, but we were under the pump, the way DK batted in the later overs was commendable. One boundary length was shorter and every batter was targeting it,” said Pant on Karthik’s mayhem.

Meanwhile, RCB are now third in the team standings with four wins in six games while Delhi Capitals remained at the eighth position, having won two matches and lost three.

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