Delhi Capitals rode on their captain’s Rishabh Pant‘s incredible knock of 88 from 43 balls to eke out a narrow four-run victory over Gujarat Titans, despite the best efforts of Sai Sudarshan, David Miller and Rashid Khan to stop the hosts from doing the double over them. Rishabh Pant‘s knock, along with Axar Patel’s essay (66 off 43) and Tristan Stubbs’s late cameo (26 off 7) turbo-charged DC’s innings well past the 200-run mark, and yet proved to be just about enough to pick the two points in the end.
DC themselves had to climb out of a hole to post 224 for 4 after being asked to bat first. Sandeep Warrior’s 3 for 15 in the powerplay had left them struggling at 44 for 3, but Rishabh Pant’s masterful 43-ball 88 and Axar Patel’s 66 in 43 from No. 3 resurrected their innings. Axar then took three catches and a wicket, and also ably supported Kuldeep Yadav (2 for 29) with the ball to ensure DC did just about enough on the night.
Toss and Pitch Report.
SRH put up a record breaking 125 runs during the batting PP in the last game at this venue, but that was on pitch number 4, we’ve moved across to pitch number 5 for today’s game. 63m and 62m square boundaries while the straight boundary is at 72m. The pitch in the last game was completely different to what’s been the case here.
The grass seems to be patchy, there has been dry grass and it has been rolled, but there are some bare areas as well. It could be two paced with the spinners getting a bit of help in the first innings, but this pitch looks very good, very well rolled and should play nicely, opine Deep Dasgupta and Natalie Germanos, in their pitch report
Gujarat Titans skipper Shubhman Gill won the toss and chose to field and made no changes in the playing 11. Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant batting first made two changes in the playing 11 as Shai Hope coming in for David Warner and Sumit Kumar in for Lalit Yadav.
Sandeep Warrier and the Afghan duo rattle the hosts
Jake Fraser-McGurk flirted with danger like he always does, and succeeded until the fourth over when his big flick went straight to Noor Ahmad at deep square leg. Three balls later, Prithvi Shaw went for a pull and was sent back by Noor’s incredible forward-diving catch at the same position.
Sandeep Warrier bowled a third over to close out the PowerPlay and had his third wicket as Shai Hope mistimed a big hit and Rashid Khan ran in from deep point to complete another sharp catch. Warrier ended the phase with 3 for 15 in 3 overs, and DC limped to 44/3. With David Warner sitting out, and DC not keen Pant bat too early, they pushed Axar as the left-hand batter in the top three. He struck Rashid for slog sweeps over the leg side initially before hitting both him and Noor through the covers off short balls.
Axar Patel and Rishabh Pant counter attacks on Afghani spin duo
The move to promote Axar to No.3 worked well for DC as he joined forces with his captain to take down spin in the middle overs. Between them, Rashid and Noor conceded 57 off 6 overs. They constantly resorted to wrong ‘uns but both Axar and Rishabh Pant read them well. Mohit Sharma’s slower ones didn’t work either as runs came off the quicks too. Both the batters targeted the leg side boundary against the slower bowlers, with Axar reaching 50 off 37 balls in this phase.
Part-timer Shahrukh also faced the same fate before Axar reached his fifty with a boundary off Rashid in the 15th over. He was the dominant contributor in the 68-ball 113-run stand with Rishabh Pant, and it was only in his pursuit of a third six in a row against Noor in the 17th over that he fell on the boundary line. The 66 was his highest IPL score.
Rishabh Pant made sixes galore as DC reaches 224 for 4 after 20 overs.
Rishabh Pant kickstarted the death-overs proceedings with a helicopter-like whip for a six off Mohit. He tonked one over extra cover in the same over, which fetched 16 runs. Noor was trusted to bowl in the death and Axar welcomed it with two big sixes, but also fell in the 14-run over, for an excellent 66 off 43 balls. Stubbs walked out with a similar wavelength, adding to the six barrage.
He smashed two fours and two sixes off R Sai Kishore, who intriguingly bowled his first over of the match in the 19th and gave away 22 runs. Rishabh Pant then demolished Mohit in the last, taking 31 off it. The GT pacer finished with the most expensive bowling figures in IPL history – 0 for 73 – with Rishabh Pant smashing 62 of those in 18 balls. The DC captain Rishabh Pant finished with a whirlwind knock of 88* from just 43 balls, including 5 fours and 8 sixes.
After Warrior’s three-wicket burst had given GT the early advantage, they would have expected Rashid, Noor Ahmad and R Sai Kishore to strangle DC through the middle overs. But Axar and Rishabh Pant kept all three at bay. Against Rashid, they only attacked the loose balls, half-trackers or wide deliveries, and eked out 37 runs off his four wicketless overs. Against Noor, they attacked to leave him with an economy of 12 in three overs
Such was Rishabh Pant and Axar’s domination in their 113-run stand that Gill did not go to Sai Kishore – their Player of the Match from the last outing – till the 19th over, fearing the match-up of two left-hand batters against a left-arm spinner. When Sai Kishore did bowl in the penultimate over of the innings, against right-hand batter Tristan Stubbs following the dismissal of Axar, he was hammered for six, four, six and four to concede 22 runs.
Gill chose the experience of Mohit Sharma over Warrier for the 20th, and Rishabh Pant owned that match-up. When Mohit went full and wide, Pant slapped him over the off side. When Mohit went short or slow, Rishabh Pant hung back and deposited him over the leg side. And when Mohit missed his yorker, Rishabh Pant sent him over midwicket. Rishabh Pant got to 88 after a 31-run final over, and his assault left Mohit with the worst bowling figures in IPL history – 0 for 73 – and GT needing 225 to win.
Saha, Sai Sudarshan make fast start in the powerplay.
Wriddhiman Saha made the most of a fast outfield to hit five fours to get 33 off 15 in this phase. DC made the big early incision with the wicket of Shubman Gill, but Sai Sudarshan – their impact substitute, started with a six and kept up the tempo. He hit another six and added four fours by the end of the phase. He also had the rub of the green on his side as Axar dropped a simple catch at mid-on to let the left-hander off. This was GT’s second best PowerPlay score in their brief existence.
Shubman Gill fell early to Anrich Nortje, for the fourth time in seven innings, but that did not slow GT down. Wriddhiman Saha struck 30 in his first 12 balls by clearing the infield expertly, and Sudarshan made full use of an early reprieve off Rasikh Salam’s bowling to race off the blocks. They did not let Nortje or Khaleel Ahmed settle in and collected 67 in the powerplay.
Rasikh Salam puts the brakes with wickets
Two splendid catches put the brakes on GT’s progress in the middle-overs. First, Axar atoned for his earlier drop with a well-timed jump to take a sharp catch at cover to end Saha’s innings. Then, Fraser-McGurk took a Noor-like blinder – running in from deep square leg and diving forward to see the back of Azmatullah Omarzai.
Sudarshan however, kept his foot on the pedal, getting a 29-ball half-century. Medium-pacer Salam, DC’s impact sub, clipped the southpaw’s wings, as Sudarshan holed out to Axar at long-off. Great reflexes from Rishabh Pant sent Shahrukh Khan packing and GT five down in Salam’s next over, leaving GT to chase 78 in the final five overs.
But the spinners then bogged Saha down, and Kuldeep dismissed him for 35 in 29 balls. Sudarshan, though, dominated the middle overs, hitting both seamers and spinners through the off side with cuts in front of and behind square. He also came down the pitch on occasion before falling to Salam in an attempt to clear long-off.
With Azmatullah Omarzai, Shahrukh Khan and Rahul Tewatia all falling for single-digit scores around Sudarshan’s dismissal, GT appeared to have lost steam, needing 73 in 24 balls.
Miller, Sai Kishore, Rashid fly, but GT fall short by 4 runs
Miller hit Nortje for three sixes and a four in a 24-run 17th over to give them hope, completing his own half-century off 21 balls along the way. The see-sawing continued. Mukesh dismissed Miller in the 18th over and, at the time, it seemed like DC had done enough. But Salam leaked 18 runs in the 19th over to make it a shootout between Rashid and Mukesh in the last over.
Mukesh conceded two fours off the first two balls and a six off the penultimate delivery but held his nerve to get the last ball to land so full that Rashid could not find the elevation he needed.
Kuldeep added an extra mile to GT’s big climb at the death as he conceded five and took out Rahul Tewatia in the 16th over. David Miller, however, narrowed the gap between balls remaining and runs required by taking 24 off his national side compatriot Anrich Nortje. DC could feel the pressure as Abhishek Porel spilt a tough catching chance at deep square leg off Rashid Khan, but Salam did well at long on to end Miller’s flying knock – of 55 from just 23 balls.
That wicket was expected to end GT’s chase but it didn’t. Sai Kishore swung for the fences and connected each time, smashing two sixes off Salam before getting bowled by the same bowler. Rashid brought the equation down from 19 off 6 to 5 off 1, but couldn’t get his team over the line despite some fabulous hitting falling short by just 4 runs.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Shubman Gill the loosing GT Captain said :
“I think we played some really good cricket, disappointing to lose in the end, but great character shown by everyone. Great fight till the end and we never thought we were out of the game at any point. When you’re chasing 224, there’s no point in talking about plans, just go out and score runs,” said Shubman Gill.
“I think impact player has a bit of a role (in making the matches high scoring), even if you lose extra wickets, extra cushion is there for the batters to keep going and it gives the license for the batters to keep going till the end,” he stated.
“At one stage, we thought we would be able to restrict them to 200-210, but we gave away some extra runs in the last 2-3 overs. But this is a smallish ground, we spoke about the same when we went out to chase. Execution becomes very important, if there’s a set batter or a finisher, you’ll have to execute well. It’s okay if there’s something in the wicket, but on pitches like this, you’ll have to make sure that you execute all your plans perfectly, be it the yorkers or the variations,” he added.
Rishabh Pant the winning skipper and Player of the Match for his brilliant 88* said :
“On choosing Rasikh for 19th over) Nortje was having a tough time. T20 is a funny game, after 14-15 overs the ball was coming on nicely. So we wanted to trust Rasikh, always trust someone who is bowling well in a game. I think it is about instincts as a captain, it will come off sometimes. Happy it worked today,” said Rishabh Pant.
“Surely at 43/3, we wanted to just keep going and target their main spinners. If we get something, we will take it on and keep rotating the strike. Everyday that I’m in the middle, I feel better. Every hour on the field matters, I love being on the field. I try to give it my 100% and it takes some time sometimes. I think the first six in the match gives me the confidence in a game. The more time I spend in the centre, the better I feel,” he added.
This IPL isn’t doing any favors to heart patients or people with high blood pressure. So many oscillations in the result. One moment Delhi were dominating, then Gujarat looked like favourites but ultimately it was a target too stiff as DC squeeze through with two points. Chasing a stiff target, GT suffered a big blow as skipper Shubman Gill was out cheaply.
Saha scored a sketchy 39, getting many mishits over the infield thanks to the powerplay, as Sai Sudarshan made his mark from the other end. The southpaw scored a neat looking fifty and was looking in control of things before Rasikh Salam nabbed him with a slower delivery. DC seemed to always get wickets when they wanted, and it felt like it was just about going through the motions.
However, David Miller had other plans. He took down his countryman Nortje was a 24 run over and got to a fifty in no time. The southpaw however was dismissed by Mukesh Kumar. GT got two more cameos from Sai Kishore and Rashid Khan, but still fell short by 4 runs. Puts into context how important that last 31-run over was when Rishabh Pant clobbered Mohit Sharma.
Delhi Capitals next host the Mumbai Indians at home on Saturday (April 27). GT welcome a struggling RCB for an afternoon fixture in Ahmedabad on Sunday (April 28).
Another day where more than 400 runs were scored in an IPL game. Good luck trying to convince a young kid to become a bowler in 2024! With the ground dimensions, the skill of the batters and the impact sub rule, bowling seems to be becoming an afterthought this season. But that’s a debate for another day. For now, let’s cherish another run fest and another close game in the IPL 2024.