"I was just waiting for my chance," says Ishant Sharma after match-winning performance against KKR
Apr 21, 2023
New Delhi [India], April 21 : Indian veteran pace bowler Ishant Sharma made a remarkable debut in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 against Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday at Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Ishant set the tone of the match by picking up two crucial wickets of in-form KKR skipper Nitish Rana and Sunil Narine cheaply for scores of 4(7) and 4(6) respectively. In his economical spell, he ended up conceding 19 runs. Ishant became one of those players who capitalized on the opportunity when it presented itself. For his heroics with the ball, he received the Man of the Match award in the post-match presentation.
"I was just waiting for my chance. I wanted to win a game for the team whenever I will get a chance," said Ishant Sharma after the match.
As Ishant's performance lifted the spirits of DC's team, they would now look to make a comeback in the group stage just like Mumbai Indians did in the previous seasons of the IPL.
"We would want to win every game from here on, qualify, and hopefully win the tournament," Ishant concluded.
Even though Delhi marked an exceptional performance with the ball, their struggles with the bat continued.
Chasing the lowest total of 127 in this year's IPL, David Warner seemed in his natural style, hitting bowler from the start. However, Prithvi Shaw continued to disappoint with his bad form, he gave his wicket to Varun Chakravarthy scoring just 13 off 11 balls in the 5th over.
DC reached the 50-run mark with ease in 5.3 overs. By punishing Sunil Nairne's 6th over conceding 17 runs, DC scored 61/1 after the powerplay.
KKR's light of hope came with the dismissal of Mitchell Marsh followed by Phil Salt in the 9th and 10 overs.
Warner clinched his fourth fifty this season off 33 balls comprising ten fours. Varun with his second wicket gave a big breakthrough to KKR by clearing set-in batter Warner at 57 off 41 balls.
Anukul Roy dismissed Manish Pandey at 21 off 23 balls and Nitish Rana sent Aman Hakim Khan back to the dressing room on a duck. Due to the dismissal of batters in regular intervals, DC struggled in the mid-overs as they did not hit a single boundary after the 16th over onwards. This brought the match to the last-over finish.d on Monday at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
In the last over, DC needed 7 runs. With the help of one no-ball, DC chased down the total in 19.2 overs with four wickets.
