Delhi Capitals’ resurgence continues to gather pace at the 2024 Indian Premier League, as after losing four of their first five matches, they secured their second consecutive triumph on Wednesday (17 April), beating Gujarat Titans by 6 wickets in Ahmedabad. Bowling the Titans out for only 89 runs – their lowest-ever score in IPL, Delhi needed only 8.5 overs to accumulate the runs required to add a couple of points to their account.
With Net Run Rate likely to play its part as a differentiator between teams in the business end, Delhi were on a mission to get to the target as early as they could. Following the plan to a T, Australian opener Jake Fraser-McGurk, who scored a half-century on his IPL debut, struck a six and a four in the first over off Sandeep Warrier’s bowling.
The youngster replicated it in the next over as well, before eventually losing his wicket to national teammate, Spencer Johnson. In the next over, Warrier, playing his first match for the Titans, added another wicket to his name by dismissing Prithvi Shaw.
The next couple of overs completely swayed the game in Delhi’s favour – not that they weren’t in the driver’s seat earlier – producing 34 runs. However, with Sandeep Warrier and Rashid Khan dismissing Abishek Porel and Shai Hope respectively on consecutive overs, Gujarat ensured their fans had a few cheerful occasions.
After the fall of four wickets, skipper Rishabh Pant and all-rounder Sumit Kumar formed a 25-run fifth-wicket stand to secure a convincing win for Delhi, ahead of what promises to be an exciting clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Mukesh Kumar Picks 3 Wickets, Ishant & Stubbs Get 2 Apiece
Earlier, Ishant Sharma took two crucial scalps in power-play while Mukesh Kumar shined with 3-14 to lead an impressive bowling show for Delhi Capitals to bowl out Gujarat Titans’ for just 89.
On a black-soil pitch which was used for the first time in this season, the ball kept low, came slow on the batters and gripped a bit for spinners. All of these were ideal for DC bowlers to bowl economical spells and keep GT on a very tight leash, with Mukesh clinching his best-ever bowling figures in the IPL.
DC were also very sharp in their fielding, with captain Rishabh Pant using his bowlers very well and taking catches plus effecting stumpings in quick fashion. GT being bundled out for 89 is now their lowest-ever total since entering the IPL fold in 2022. Their previous lowest total in the IPL was 125, which coincidentally also came against DC in Ahmedabad last year.
Electing to bowl first, Ishant landed the first blow by getting Shubman Gill to drive straight to cover in the second over. Wriddhiman Saha tried to hoick across the line against Mukesh, but chopped on to uproot his middle-stump in the fourth over.
GT plunged into more trouble as Sai Sudharsan, who punched and creamed the drive off Khaleel Ahmed for back-to-back boundaries, was run-out by a brilliant direct hit from Sumit Kumar running in from short mid-wicket at the non-striker’s end despite making a desperate dive.
In the same over, David Miller got a slight inside-edge off Ishant and Pant dived full stretch to his left for taking a low catch, followed by getting the decision changed successfully on review. A maiden over from Khaleel ended the power-play with GT at 30/4.
The score became 47/5 in the ninth over as Abhinav Manohar tried to push at an outside off-stump delivery from Tristan Stubbs and Pant was quick to dislodge the bails for completing the stumping.
A ball later, impact player Shahrukh Khan stepped down the pitch to pull off Stubbs, but missed it and Pant, despite not gathering it cleanly, completed the stumping as the ball bounced off his gloves to hit the stumps.
Rahul Tewatia went for the slog-sweep against Axar Patel, but the ball turned in to trap the batter lbw. With the umpire’s call showing the ball clipping the side of the leg-stump, Tewatia had to depart as GT continued to slide.
Mohit Sharma tried to break free, but holed out in the deep off Khaleel. Rashid Khan, who hit a four before the halfway mark, hit the first six of the innings by launching Kuldeep over extra cover for six. But in a bid to slash a short ball from Mukesh, Rashid gave a faint outside edge behind to Pant. A ball later, Mukesh castled Noor Ahmad to end GT’s innings in 17.3 overs.
(With inputs from IANS)
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