Gujarat’s match winner Sai Sudarshan can get a place in the Indian team soon, captain Hardik Pandya gave a hint
New Delhi. Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya believes teammate Sai Sudarshan will “do brilliantly” in the next two years in franchise cricket as well as for the Indian team. Man of the match Sudarshan played an unbeaten inning of 62 runs in 48 balls against Delhi Capitals, which helped defending champions Gujarat register their second consecutive win.
Gujarat won the match by six wickets with 11 balls to spare after restricting Delhi to 162 for eight. At the award ceremony after the match, Pandya said, “He (Sai Sudarshan) is batting brilliantly. The credit goes to him as well as to the supporting team members. He has done a lot of batting (practice) in the last 15 days. This is the result of his hard work. “He said,” If I am not proved wrong, in two years, he will do something good for franchise cricket and eventually India.
The Gujarat team had lost the wickets of Shubman Gill, Pandya and Wriddhiman Saha till the score of 54 runs in the powerplay, but Sudarshan managed one end wisely and gave the team victory. Pandya said, “Our start in the match was very interesting. We didn’t even know what was happening. We gave away 15-20 runs more in the powerplay. But our bowlers made a good comeback. “I am on this stage for the first time and I am a bit nervous,” said Sudarshan, who stitched half-century partnerships with Vijay Shankar and David Miller. I was under a bit of pressure and the ball was staying down as well. I wanted to take the match till the end.
This was Delhi’s second defeat in two matches and team captain David Warner blamed it on the conditions here. Warner said, “The ball swung a lot more than I thought in the beginning. Losing wickets in the powerplay builds pressure. He (Gujarat) has shown how we have learned from this situation. We will tackle the swing better. Our bowlers bowled well. We were in this match for a long time but Sudarshan batted very well.
