Team Delhi's captain Shreyas Iyer said that he was left 'disappointed' after watching his batsmen crumble to defeat following a collapse of seven wickets for eight runs against Team Punjab, the worst in the Indian T20 League history.
AFP/ Xavier Galiana
Rishabh Pant and Colin Ingram had worked hard to put Delhi into a winning position and the visitors had needed just 23 runs from 21 balls with seven wickets in hand. However, Mohammed Shami and Sam Curran, backed by supreme alertness by Punjab fielders, threw Delhi Into disarray with wickets tumbling rapidly.
Curran, who was named Man-of-the-Match for his haul of 4 in 2.2 overs, sealed the contest with a hat-trick, after plucking out Sandeep Lamichhane's off stump with a pinpoint yorker, but admitted afterwards that he hadn 't Noticed his feat amid the euphoria.
"I didn't really know (about the hat-trick)," he said during the post-match presentation. "The crowd was so loud, I couldn't hear my own thoughts. Ash (R Ashwin) told me to do What I do. Against the local batsmen, who I didn't know where they hit, I had to ask the other guys. So that can get tricky. But Shami got two amazing overs in the end which helped, and Ashwin's run-out I hope we keep winning."
For Iyer, the defeat was unbelievable, and he feared their failure to seal an apparently done treaty might come back to haunt Delhi later in the season. "Yeah, really disappointing," he said, after Delhi's second defeat in four matches. Way we Are going on and the way we came ball to ball and losing from there, it's really disappointing.
"We didn't play smart cricket and they outplayed us in all departments. And I am speechless right now because it is a crucial match. And losing such matches is definitely not Going to benefit us At the end."
