Du Plessis: We fell short by 10 runs

Rising Pune Supergiants batsman Faf du Plessis believes his side was at least 10 runs short of providing a more challenging total against Gujarat Lions, which defeated its opponents in a one-sided encounter in Rajkot.

Faf du Plessis top scored for Rising Pune Supergiants with 69 off 43 balls.

Faf du Plessis, the Rising Pune Supergiants batsman, believes his side was 10 runs short of setting up a competitive total for a less one-sided game against Gujarat Lions. It was eventually defeated by seven wickets with two overs to spare. Aaron Finch and Brendon McCullum played destructive knocks to guide Gujarat Lions to its first home win of the season.

> Report: Gujarat Lions defeats Rising Pune Supergiants by seven wickets

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“Possibly 10 more runs would have been great for us, but we could not score enough runs and lost wickets towards the end,” du Plessis told reporters after the match.

Gujarat Lions chased 164 without much hiccup, helped by the opening stand of 85 in 8.3 overs between McCullum and Finch. Du Plessis said, “We have some quality players who have the ability to score runs quickly but we could not do that as we wanted.”

Difficulty in finding boundaries

Although the pitch did not make playing spin too difficult, the Gujarat Lions spinners bowled tightly to prevent opposition batsmen from opening up, du Plessis said. “They have bowlers who have the ability to take pace off the ball, they bowl good cutters and slower ones in right areas and their spinners too bowled well and made it difficult for us to hit fours and sixes in middle overs,” he said.

“On this type of wicket you just land the bowl on a good spot and if you can do that the batsmen feel the pressure. Unfortunately, we couldn't do that for long period,” du Plessis said.

He pointed that his team, on the positive side, learnt a lot from the defeat. “What we learnt from this game is how to bowl on a wicket like this, we are a new team and will find out a good combination in bowling and batting department.”

Rising Pune Supergiants got off to a brisk start, batting first, as Kevin Pietersen and du Plessis were batting well to lead their side to a healthy 87 for 1 after 10 overs. Du Plessis reasoned that in the initial period, batting was easier. “First 10 overs were a bit easier and then the wicket had gone slow and it was not easy for batsmen to attack bowlers.

“Both the teams batted well but only difference was that they knew the target and therefore played accordingly.”