Finance
Gujarat Titas defeated Delhi Capitals by six wickets in match seven of the IPL 2023 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday, with Mohammed Shami and Rashid Khan taking three wickets each and B Sai Sudharsan scoring an impressive 62 not out, with David Miller and Vijay Shankar playing crucial roles.
Shami and Rashid picked 3-41 and 3-31 on a pitch with plenty of pace and bounce, respectively, while Alzarri Joseph dazzled with 2/29. Sudharsan and Shankar played some good solid cricket in their 53-run fourth-wicket partnership after losing three wickets in power-play.
The pair searched for boundaries while also rotating the strike. They were able to keep up with the run rate by playing risk-free cricket until Shankar fell in the 14th over.
With 46 needed off the final five overs, it was anyone’s game until Gujarat tipped the scales in their favor. David Miller hit a six off Mukesh Kumar and then lofted over wide long-on for the same result. He then finished the 16th over with a powerful drive through cover for four and 20 runs.
Sudharsan reached his fifty in 44 balls, thanks to a delightful ramp off Anrich Nortje in the 17th over, which was followed by a massive swivelled six over fine leg. Miller then hurriedly drove away from Khaleel Ahmed for four in the 18th over, before finishing off the chase with 11 balls to spare.
Wriddhiman Saha kicked off the chase with a bang, punching and lofting impact player Ahmed for back-to-back boundaries before finishing the over with a superb pick-up shot for six. Shubman Gill greeted Mukesh with two perfectly timed fours through the off-side in the next over.
Nortje struck on his first ball of the tournament, uprooting Gill’s off-stump with a scorching nip-backer in the third over, before uprooting Saha’s off-stump with another feisty delivery in the next.
Sudharsan stunned everyone with a six-ball scoop off Nortje before flicking Ahmed through mid-wicket for four. However, the left-arm pacer ended the power-play by forcing Hardik Pandya to play a length delivery, which he nicked behind to Abishek Porel.
Sudharsan survived a caught behind appeal off Kuldeep after replays revealed a flat line when the ball went past the bat. He teamed up with Shankar, the impact player, to get Gujarat back on track.
While Sudarshan exploited Mukesh’s width to drive him through extra-cover, Shankar delivered some eye-catching boundary shots, such as lofting over Kuldeep’s head and pulling stylishly off Mitchell Marsh and Ahmed.
The 53-run partnership came to an end when Marsh trapped Shankar lbw and won the decision via DRS, as the crowd found its voice again. Miller survived a lbw off Kuldeep in the 15th over, with replays showing the ball missing leg-stump. Miller and Sudharsan then took Gujarat home without incident.
Earlier, Shami received some assistance from the pitch during an eventful opening over. The off-stump was disturbed by an away swinger against Warner, but the bail remained unmoved. Despite his size reduction, Shami was unable to maintain control, giving away seven wides.
In his next over, Prithvi Shaw dispatched Shami by flaying a cut over the slip cordon for four. Shami, on the other hand, had the last laugh when Shaw was caught on a pull at mid-on. By casting Marsh, the senior Indian pacer had more success with the new ball.
a squeaky Warner slapped Shami through point for four, then pulled Pandya through the square leg for another boundary. He greeted Joseph in the seventh over with a brace of boundaries – a smash over mid-off was followed by steering over backward point.
Warner chopped off Joseph in the ninth over, just as it appeared he was set at the crease. Rilee Rossouw was then dismissed by Joseph with a 146kph delivery that took the shoulder edge of an awkward fend and was brilliantly caught by diving backward point.
Before Rashid castled him in the 13th over, debutant Porel looked good in his 11-ball 20, including pulling Yash Dayal over square leg for six after being hit on the helmet by a Joseph bouncer.
With Sarfaraz Khan struggling to get going despite Josh Little’s catch in the 12th over, Axar injected some momentum with boundaries off Rashid and Joseph, followed by a stunning loft off the leg-spinner for six.
Sarfaraz’s agonizing stay came to an end on the very next ball of the 17th over when he miscued a sweep to deep square leg after sweeping off Rashid. Aman Khan slog-swept Rashid for six, but the leg-spinner sliced straight to extra cover.
However, Axar continued to do some late-hitting for Delhi, lofting a clean six over long-off off Josh Little. In the final over, he hit Shami for a six with a lovely one-handed smash over wide long-on. However, A’ar sliced to deep cover two balls later in an attempt to go big. Anrich Nortje’s last-ball four propelled Delhi above 160.
Brief Score: Delhi Capitals 162/8 in 20 overs (David Warner 37, Axar Patel 36; Rashid Khan 3-31, Mohammed Shami 3-41) lost to Gujarat Titans 163/4 in 18.1 overs (B Sai Sudharsan 62 not out, David Miller 31 not out; Anrich Nortje 2-39, Mitchell Marsh 1-24) by six wickets
