New Delhi: Delhi Capitals (DC) skipper Rishabh Pant struggled against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) while trying to chase down a ‘record’ total of 267 runs at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday. DC succumbed to their fifth loss of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 as SRH beat them by 67 runs to continue their glorious winning run. It was Australian batting prodigy Jake Fraser-McGurk, whose 18-ball 65 gave DC some hope of overhauling SRH but other batters failed to strike alike.

As the game ended, many fans on social media pointed out the ‘woeful’ knock that Pant played, in terms of the number of balls faced. He lasted the longest on the crease with a 35-ball 44 but the pace with which he went for the chase left many disappointed. Some even questioned is he is eligible for a spot in Team India for the T20 World Cup 2024.

Poor batting performance by Rishabh Pant today. The NCA should be questioned for not properly assessing his fitness as he is unable to take doubles and maintain balance while hitting shots. pic.twitter.com/NpneyBHelD

— Abhishek (@vicharabhio) April 20, 2024

Rishabh Pant playing a criminal innings on Delhi Highway pic.twitter.com/Mi6gxpRGEo

— Dinda Academy (@academy_dinda) April 20, 2024

The way Rishabh Pant is batting in IPL, do you think he will be a part of the T20 World Cup team? What do you think about him? #RishabhPant pic.twitter.com/9RaARq8XU6

— Dushyant Kumar (@DushyantKrRawat) April 21, 2024

Post-match, Pant admitted that his team delivered a below-par performance in the entire game, narrowing down to the SRH powerplay where DC unarguably lost the match, having conceded a record 125 runs, in IPL and in T20 cricket as well.

It was the Capitals who had won the toss and opted to bowl first reasoning the dew factor. Pant was asked about the same after the match and said that he expected dew to come later on in the innings which didn’t happen. He insisted that there would have been a chance for DC had they restricted SRH to 220-230 and could see that powerplay was the most defining moment of the match.

He hoped to bounce back with a clear thought process and mindset and went on to laud Fraser-McGurk for his phenomenal performance scoring at a strike rate of 361.11. Delhi Capitals are placed seventh in the points table with just three wins in eight games so far.