Former Indian batter Rohan Gavaskar defended Nitish Rana’s bowling performance after Delhi Capitals suffered a 47-run loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad on Tuesday.

Rana was given the second over of the innings by Axar Patel and he conceded only six runs. However, the part-time spinner was taken for 20 runs in the fifth over of the Powerplay.

Rana was re-introduced in the 10th over and he conceded only six runs but he was taken for 23 runs in his final over. Meanwhile, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav bowled two overs apiece and conceded 53 runs in their four overs collectively.

“When you include Nitish Rana in your team, you expect runs from him. You don’t think that he will bowl four overs, concede 20 runs, and take three wickets. Axar Patel bowled just 2 overs, Kuldeep Yadav bowled 2 overs, and Nitish Rana bowled 4. Something has gone wrong here. Maybe Axar and Kuldeep should have bowled 4 overs because they are frontline bowlers. Nitish Rana is a batting all-rounder. So, his first job is to bat, and then try to bowl a couple of overs occasionally. You cannot blame him for giving away 55 runs,” Rohan Gavaskar said on Cricbuzz.

On the other hand, Rana scored a decent knock of 57 runs off 30 balls against SRH. DC were chasing a huge score of 243 runs and Gavaskar noted that none of the visitors’ batters scored at a strike rate of more than 200.

“There will be a massive fight for the fourth spot after this result, and this net run-rate will have a huge impact. If you want to judge them on batting, I would give them a 10/10, because it is not easy to score 240. If you want to judge them on bowling, again, it would be 10/10, because you have kept the Capitals under 200 on a pitch where you scored 240. The matter of concern is that DC were chasing a 240-run target, and no one had a strike rate of over 200.

Delhi Capitals will next take on Punjab Kings at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, on Saturday.