Sunil Gavaskar could not believe his eyes in the commentary box as he witnessed the pavilion procession of PBKS batsmen in Qualifier 1 against RCB. On live, the seasoned commentator chastised batters who played weak shots and were disqualified, the most notable being Marcus Stoinis, who was batting well in the middle before being removed.
The great all-rounder was on 26(16) before getting dismissed by a googly from Suyash Sharma. Stoinis’ lofted shot against a high-turning googly stunned Gavaskar, who called it an unbelievable shot for the wrong reasons and compared it to suicide.
“It’s unbelievable. “This is suicide, isn’t it?” Sunil Gavaskar asked on air.
Shreyas Iyer admitted after the match that their batting lost them the game. The PBKS captain mentioned that the Mullanpur surface normally has some extra bounce, and the batters had to handle with it properly. He declared that they had lost the fight, but the war had not ended.
“We need to focus on our batting, particularly on this surface. All of the games we’ve played here have had varying bounces. We can’t give such explanations because, at the end of the day, we’re professionals who have to bat based on the situation and live up to expectations. “We lost the battle, but not the war,” Iyer stated.
Iyer said that they lost a lot of wickets early on, but there were few mistakes in their plans. He said that the hitters’ execution was incorrect, and that the bowlers could not be faulted for failing to defend a low total.
“It was a memorable day, but we needed to start over. We lost many wickets (in the first innings). There is a lot to go back and study on. To be honest, I have no doubts about my decisions. Whatever we did in terms of planning, whether it was on or off the ground, I believe it was effective. Just that we couldn’t execute it on the pitch; I can’t blame the bowlers since it was a low total to defend’, the PBKS captain continued.
India
