Pant, Samson partnership ‘one of the best I’ve ever seen’, says Karun Nair

Chasing an imposing 209 to win, Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson helped Delhi Daredevils script the second-highest successful chase in Indian Premier League history.

Rishabh Pant (left) and Sanju Samson added 143 runs for the second wicket.

 

Delhi Daredevils’ stand-in captain Karun Nair described the match-winning 143-run partnership between Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson as one of the best partnerships that he has ever witnessed.

Chasing an imposing 209 to win, Pant (97) and Samson (61) helped their team script the second-highest successful chase in Indian Premier League (IPL) history as

Daredevils defeated Gujarat Lions by seven wickets .

“Amazing performance, one of the best partnerships I’ve ever seen,” Nair said after the game. “You can’t have a plan when you’re chasing that much, just have to go from ball 1. We spoke about playing with freedom and not worrying about the fear of failure. The fear of getting out goes out the way, you then just watch and hit the ball,” he said.

Man-of-the-Match Pant said he looked to capitalise on bad balls. “We always thought if we get a bad ball, we’ll utilise it. If we get three good balls, we’ll go for sixes.”

Lions captain Suresh Raina was crestfallen after the defeat. “It is Pant’s day, he batted very well. Important to bowl dot balls, we tried everything, slower balls, the ball was reversing but that time, the game was over,” he said.

“206 was defendable. We didn’t bowl really well. We don’t have that experience with the old ball. Tye has done well, Bravo isn’t there. They’re the future of the Indian team. We were 20 runs short,” he added.