We should have defended 200: Solanki

Ahmedabad: Gujarat Titans director of cricket Vikram Solanki said the hosts should have defended 200 against the Punjab Kings and putting down catches cost them the match. On the back of an unbeaten 89 by captain Shubman Gill, the Titans scored 199/4, which the Kings chased down with three wickets in hand, at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, on Thursday.Asked as to what went wrong, Solanki said, “We probably should have defended 200. We were in a position (to win). We probably let ourselves down in certain aspects of the game. If you think about how we fielded, we fielded well in parts. Our ground fielding was outstanding. We put some chances down. I think that would have made a difference. But, we should have actually defended 200.”Titans’ Azmatullah Omarzai dropped Sikandar Raza in the 11th over with the Zimbabwean batting on nine. However, that drop didn’t hurt much as Raza was dismissed by Mohit Sharma for 15 two overs later. Impact player Ashutosh Sharma's catch was spilled by Umesh Yadav in the 17th over on the square leg boundary when he had just made three runs. Yadav covered considerable ground, had his eyes on the ball but failed to hang on to the catch. Sharma again had a reprieve when he was batting on 16 in the 18th over when Sai Sudharsan dropped him at long-off off Omarzai's bowling. The drops proved costly in the final analysis as Sharma made 31 off 17 balls before being dismissed in the final over.Asked if the batting of upcoming players surprised him, the former England cricketer said, "I don't think anybody gets surprised now by youngsters coming in and being able to do what they do. You think of the amount of practice that now goes into all franchisees. All teams practise so well and all batters are so dynamic in terms of what they are practicing. It shows the skill levels are improving. I wouldn't say I was surprised. I thought we could have perhaps executed a little better against him. But I'm not surprised with young batters being able to come in and do what they're doing."He added: “The most impressive thing about the young guys is for them being able to deal with that sort of situation, given the pressure that is around, given the crowd that is around, given the scoreboard pressure, and given the sort of quality of bowling in play. Shot-making is what he (Shashank Singh) is clearly skilled at. But, actually to be able to play the right shot at the right time is, I suppose, the greatest skill in how young batsmen are going about things. He played very well. All credit to Punjab in the way they chased it."