Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag feels that Punjab Kings ‘miscalculated’ the retired out call of Atharva Taide which cost them the game against Delhi Capitals. PBKS hosted DC in Dharamshala looking to stay alive in the IPL 2023 playoffs race but a defeat by 15 runs to David Warner’s side leaves Shikhar Dhawan and Co in a spot of bother as they can no longer reach 16 points.
The maximum Punjab can go is up to 14 points which may not be enough to secure qualification into the playoffs. While there were many moments in the game which cost PBKS dearly, including Dhawan’s call to give the last over of the match to Harpreet Brar with Arshdeep Singh waiting on the wings – a decision the Punjab captain himself admitted that had backfired – another bizarre call was the decision to retire Atharva Taide.
The middle-order batter should have been retired earlier, feels Sehwag, and the former Indian opener said that instead of Taide coming off retired out, he should have faked an injury like Krunal Pandya did in a recent game for Lucknow Super Giants.
“I would have retired him earlier in the game. If he’d have scored 70 off 42 balls, Punjab would have won the game. I would have asked him to retire earlier or to fake an injury and retire hurt instead of retired out, as Krunal Pandya did for LSG,” said Sehwag on Cricbuzz.
“If you’ve retired hurt, you can come back to bat if needed, but you cannot return if you’re retired out. If instead of retiring after facing 42 deliveries, he would have retired after 36 balls, someone else could have scored probably 15 runs in those 6 deliveries,” he added.
When Taide came off, the required run rate had jumped to 17.2 per over, and still Liam Livingstone kept PBKS in the chase of 214, and had he gotten support from the likes of Jitesh Sharma, Shahrukh Khan and Sam Curran who all failed to shine with the bat, Punjab could have won the game.
“Punjab miscalculated it a little. Every batter wants to score as many runs as possible in the least amount of deliveries. But if you’re not in the groove, it should not hurt your ego to retire in order to help your team, you will get the chance to show what you’re capable of in some other game down the line,” stated Sehwag further.
In the end, PBKS could only muster up 198/8 in reply to Delhi’s 213/2, despite Livingstone’s 94-run knock.
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