Bottom-placed Delhi Capitals pulled off a surprise win against table-toppers Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad, first surviving past Mohammed Shami’s scything four-wicket haul and then defending it with a collective bowling effort against a side that doesn’t lose many while chasing. It was only GT’s second loss in 14 run-chases. That the standings don’t change even after the result points to the gap between the sides this season but DC were comfortably the better all-round side on the night.
GT were once reeling at 23 for 5 after the powerplay. Mohammed Shami was unstoppable with the new ball, bowling his four overs for figures of 4 for 11. If DC were looking for a breather against the new ball, there was none. Shami bowled unchanged from one end, using the little bit of juice in the pitch against David Warner’s left-field decision to bat first. He struck with the first ball of the match, beating Phil Salt with an outswinger and getting him caught at cover. The next three wickets of Rilee Rossouw, Manish Pandey and Priyam Garg were all caught behind by Wriddhiman Saha, who had yet another fantastic day behind the stumps.
Aman Hakim Khan takes DC to 130
Apart from those four wickets from Shami, there was a needless David Warner runout in the powerplay. It meant that DC had lost half their side inside six overs and recovery from there looked a long way away. It did arrive in the form of Aman Khan who struck his maiden IPL fifty and helped forge important fifty-run stands with Axar Patel and Ripal Patel. Noor Ahmad and Rashid Khan were tight in the middle overs, bowling their combined eight overs for 1-48, but Aman helped pick 41 runs off Mohit Sharma and Joshua Little from overs 16-18, thus delivering DC to a total worth fighting for.
DC return in kind with the ball
What Shami got out of the pitch, DC bowlers did too. Khaleel Ahmed kickstarted it by getting Saha caught behind in the first over. Anrich Nortje then drew Shubman Gill into playing away from the body and had him caught at cover-point before Ishant bowled Vijay Shankar with a knuckle ball that Dale Steyn called the “best knuckle ball wicket” on Twitter. It took Hardik Pandya’a half-century to stabilize the innings but GT had left themselves with too much to do.
Kuldeep Yadav bowled slow and loopy tonight and got immediate dividend in his first over. David Miller attempted a ramp shot off the third ball he faced and lost his stumps. Kuldeep would finish with 1 for 15, helped by the pressure that Axar Patel built at the other end. In fact, from overs 7 to 15, GT scored only 48 runs and hit just one boundary. That slowdown came back to bite them big time in the last five overs, when timing the old ball on a big ground wasn’t the easiest.
Rahul Tewatia failed to get his side win
Yeah it was just like we have seen before. He came to the crease with GT behind the eight-ball, struck three consecutive sixes off Anrich Nortje in the penultimate over and reduced the target down to 12 runs off the final over. DC trusted Ishant Sharma with the responsibility and Tewatia didn’t quite have another six up his tank on the night. Ishant got him caught on the ring and sealed an upset win for his side.
