Mumbai : Punjab Kings pace bowler Arshdeep Singh has said that a lot is being made out of Odean Smith’s overthrow that gave Gujarat Titans one extra run and also brought ‘Man of the Moment’ Rahul Tewatia back on strike, which proved decisive in the end.
Chasing 190, Titans required 19 off the final over. Odean Smith was tasked with defending the job in the last over, and he started the over well, with a dot ball also yielding a run-out of skipper Hardik Pandya. New man at the crease, Tewatia, then managed to pick a single and in the next delivery David Miller hit a boundary to keep Gujarat in the game.
The Proteas batter could free his arms in the next ball but an overthrow by Smith gave Gujarat one run and also brought Tewatia back on strike. The 28-year-old Tewatia obliged brilliantly, carting Smith just over the deep mid-wicket, with the fielder nearly catching him before falling over the rope, and then he slog sweeped the final delivery over the long-on boundary for a mighty six to snatch victory for Gujarat Titans from the jaws of defeat against Punjab.
The overthrow in the last over has been debated to death, and Odean Smith is being blamed for PBKS’ defeat for conceding that vital run, which brought Tewatia on strike. A dot there would have meant that the best result GT could force on PBKS would have been a super over.
“If you look back (not just in the previous game), there are a lot of instances where you would want to change things. However, we don’t want to think about those on match days. We do look into the game the next day briefly to discuss the previous day’s game, both what all we did well and the potential areas of improvement,” said Arshdeep.
“I guess, these questions are being raised given the result. Had we won the match in this scenario, we would not be asked these questions,” he added.
On whether the players were caught up with emotions over the last two deliveries of Smith when GT required two sixes for victory, Arshdeep said that his side had played plenty of nerve-wracking games to get rattled by such roller-coaster situations.
“The PBKS as a unit has played a lot of exciting games over the last few years. Our emotions are pretty stable now, having played a lot of matches that are down to the last over or even the last delivery. So we do not look at the situation in hand any differently. At any point, we try to stay stable as a team, whether we win or lose, and enjoy our cricket.”
–IANS
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