David Miller helps GT beat Delhi Capitals in the end.
In 2022, when Gujarat Titans won the title, Hardik Pandya led a team that almost never made a mistake when trying to get runs. They have had a similar start to the 2023 IPL season. They have won both of their games, both of which they chose to chase. On Tuesday, they beat Delhi Capitals at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground with 11 balls and six wickets left. The target was 163. Sai Sudharsan scored 62 runs without being out, and David Miller did what was expected by putting on the finishing touches.
Wriddhiman Saha scored 14 runs in the first over, and Shubman Gill hit two boundaries through the off-side in the second. However, when Anrich Nortje came on, the Delhi players started to smile. He got rid of Saha and Gill in the same way, with the ball hitting the batter’s pad and then crashing into the stumps.
In the sixth over, Pandya was caught behind by Khaleel Ahmed, who had replaced Sarfaraz Khan as the Impact Player after Delhi’s turn. This meant that the Titans lost their third wicket. Khaleel’s length ball, which he threw from around the wicket, kept its line just enough to get Pandya to edge it to the outside. After six overs, the Titans were 54/3.
At that point, the run rate wasn’t a problem for the visitors, so all Sudharsan and Vijay Shankar (who replaced Joshua Little after the first innings) had to do was make a partnership. In 44 balls, the two Tamil Nadu players added 53 runs after the fourth wicket fell.
Shankar was out after being out for 29 (23 balls, 3 fours) in the 14th over. At that point, Titans needed 56 runs off 40 balls. Early in his turn, Sudharsan took a risk by moving to the off side to scoop a full ball from Nortje for a six over fine-leg. But as the innings went on, he slowed down and found it harder and harder to get to the boundary.
But it didn’t matter because Miller was on a rampage and relieved the pressure with two sixes and a four in Mukesh Kumar’s 20-run over. It made the last four overs count for only 26 runs. From then on, it was easy for the team that had already won.
Delhi needs to work on their batting after they were only able to score 162 runs. David Warner (37, 32b, 7×4) and Axar Patel (36, 22b, 2×4, 3×6) did well, but Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz need to step up for the hosts. The most wickets were taken by Mohammed Shami (3/41), Alzarri Joseph (2/29), and Rashid Khan (3/31).
Shaw was the first player from Delhi to be out. He was caught at mid-on by Shami while trying to pull. In his next over, the India speedster got rid of Mitchell Marsh. With a little help from the surface, he got one to move away from the Australian. The Australian’s sloppy cut caused the ball to go inside the stumps. Shami’s first three overs gave up 29 runs because he wasn’t very consistent with his line. However, whenever he made the Delhi batters play, he did well.
Early on, Warner scored most of Delhi’s runs, which put them at 52/2 at the end of the powerplay. The left-handed opener was especially quick to take advantage of any width outside off-stump. In the seventh over of the innings, which was Joseph’s first, he hit him for two boundaries. However, the West Indian pacer got his own back in the next over when Warner hit a length ball into his stumps. Warner had enough space to play the shot, but an angled bat cost him the game.
Right away, Joseph made it two out of two by greeting South African Rilee Rossouw with a hard shot that Rossouw awkwardly blocked with his left hand. The ball almost made it to Rahul Tewatia, who was diving for it at backward point.
After nine overs, Delhi was in trouble with a score of 70/4. Surprisingly, Abishek Porel, who was making his first appearance, helped out with 20 runs off 11 balls in a 34-run partnership with Sarfaraz for the fifth wicket. Porel, a left-handed batter from Bengal who was brought in to keep wickets, made the Delhi crowd go crazy when he hit Joseph with an upper cut towards the third man area. Yash Dayal, who was stationed at the boundary, caught the ball, but he couldn’t stay inside the boundary line. To add insult to injury for Dayal, Porel then hit a six over deep midwicket with the left-arm pacer.
Rashid’s arrival in the 13th over was what put a stop to Porel’s good start with the bat. The young player was bowled when he played across the line to a full ball from the star leg-spinner. This was a big mistake against a bowler like Rashid.
Sarfaraz’s 30 off 34 balls seemed out of sync, but Axar’s late surge helped them reach a score that seemed impossible to reach after they lost four wickets in the first ten overs.
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