See the ball, hit the ball – Pant shares his batting mantra with Dravid
The Feroz Shah Kotla witnessed a run fest on Thursday night as two young batsmen - Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson - clobbered the Gujarat Lions attack and helped set the platform for Delhi Daredevils' highest run-chase. To the spectators it was like watching a highlights package - the way Pant and Samson were competing with each other, one could have easily mistaken their innings for a Super Sixes competition. While Sanju refused to hit fours and finished with seven sixes during his 31-ball 61, the local lad Pant blasted nine sixes and six boundaries en route to his 97 (off 43 balls). Their 143-run partnership set up DD's chase of 209, which was quite comfortably accomplished.
Speaking about the partnership, Sanju said Pant’s encouraging words egged him to take the bowlers head-on. “Bhaiya jyada socho mat, bas maro (don’t think too much, just hit), I think that really helped me to go on. Enjoyed batting with him,” the opener told Dravid looking back on the run-chase.
Post the commanding win, which keeps the Daredevils alive in the race to the playoffs, both batsmen - along with mentor Rahul Dravid - reflected on run-chase. Dravid quipped that he was glad the two young lads did not watch too much of his batting and were not influenced by his style of batting in their growing up days. In this iplt20.com exclusive, Dravid showers generous praise on his two wards for their incredible performance in a high-pressure run-chase. He goes on to add, “What was impressive for me was Rishabh - batting on 97 and not thinking about his 100 at that stage and still going for his shots. (He was) not worrying about the 100 and (was) looking to get the team home. Incredible innings from the two boys and truly well deserved.
While lauding the two youngsters for their contribution to the team’s win, Dravid also said he hoped next time they could stay on and complete the job themselves. The DD mentor shared his expectations of the two lads when he said, “I am a hard task master (and) I hope that you guys will next time finish the job and stay not out.”