Rishabh Pant's return to the cricket field ended on a losing note as Delhi Capitals slumped to a four wicket loss to Punjab Kings. After DC scored 174/9 in 20 overs, their bowling unit dented PBKS as Ishant Sharma scalped Shikhar Dhawan and Prabhsimran Singh in the fourth over. But during the sixth over, Ishant Sharma twisted his ankle while fielding. That incident broke DC's rhythm. DC captain Pant later termed it as a reason for their loss.
Ishant was taken off the field after the incident.
"I think Ishant's injury was clearly evident in the field, we were already one bowler short because of our batting, Abishek Porel did well to give us those extra runs, but we were always one bowler short. The boys did well to drag us back into the match at various stages," Pant said after the loss.
With Ishant's two overs at his disposal, Pant had to use Mitchell Marsh, who isn't as sharp a bowler he used to be and Sumit Kumar, making his IPL debut was overawed by the occasion.
"Wicket played as we expected to play, can't make excuses. We will learn from it but having one bowler short is never good. We were short in terms of extra bowler. We actually pulled it back in the end (but couldn't complete the job). It is part and parcel of the game," the skipper said.
He might have failed to set the stage on fire on his comeback match, scoring 18 runs off 13 balls with the help of two boundaries but he gave enough hints with his performance that he is back, inflicting a stumping and taking a catch.
"Personally I was pretty nervous (while batting) but you have to go through this when you enter the field. This isn't the first time being nervous, but happy about that (return overall)," Pant said at the post-match press conference about his return.
He was all praise for young Abhishek Porel, whose unbeaten 32 off 10 balls gave his team something to fight for.
"Abhishek came in and chipped in with a few runs which were crucial. It was an amazing innings, congrats to him. I think it's just his third or fourth game but the kind of impact he made was huge. Really looking forward to seeing him this season," Pant said.
PBKS skipper Shikhar Dhawan was satisfied with the performance of his side, and particularly praised Sam Curran (63 off 47) and Liam Livingstone (38 not out off 21) for their efforts.
"This is the first time I'm playing at this level since the last IPL. I felt we leaked a few extra runs, of course extra nerves are there in the first match. It's normal. Felt the wicket got better during the chase. Sam played well and Livingstone finished it beautifully," he said.
With PTI inputs