The Delhi Capitals put on an amazing bowling display on Wednesday at the Narendra Modi Stadium, bowling out the Gujarat Titans for only 89 runs and setting up their six-wicket victory. Ishant Sharma claimed two significant wickets during the power play, and Mukesh Kumar shone with 3-14.
The ball stayed low, came on the batters slowly, and gripped a little bit for the spinners on a black-soil pitch that was used for the first time this season. With GT on a very tight leash, all of this was perfect for DC bowlers to bowl economical stints. With the exception of Kuldeep Yadav, every bowler was among the wickets, and Mukesh had his highest-ever IPL bowling stats.
Captain Rishabh Pant, who laughed at the toss and decided to bowl first, used his bowlers very well, taking two catches in addition to making several quick stumpings. DC was also quite skilled in their fielding. In response, cameos from Shai Hope, Abishek Porel, and Jake Fraser-McGurk quickly ended the chase in 8.5 overs.
With the significant win in Ahmedabad, DC overtakes GT and moves up to sixth position in the points table. GT’s lowest total since joining the IPL in 2022 is presently 89 after being bundled out. Their previous IPL low total, which coincidentally happened to be against DC in Ahmedabad last year, was 125.
After Shubman Gill hit two clean fours earlier, Ishant delivered the opening blow by forcing him to drive straight to cover. In an attempt to hoick over Mukesh, Wriddhiman Saha was chopped down to remove his middle stump.
When Sumit Kumar brilliantly struck Sai Sudharsan, who had just made a frantic dive to punch and cream the drive off Khaleel Ahmed for back-to-back boundaries, rushing in from short mid-wicket, GT found itself in even more danger.
David Miller got a small inside edge off Ishant in the same over, and Pant dove all the way to his left to take a low catch. Pant was successful in having the judgement reversed on review. After Khaleel hit a maiden over, GT called a power-play at 30/4.
Abhinav Manohar attempted to push at an outside off-stump ball from Tristan Stubbs, and Pant quickly removed the bails to finish the stumping while grinning like a child. It quickly became 47/5.
After a delivery, impact player Shahrukh Khan attempted to remove Stubbs by stepping down the pitch, but he failed, and Pant finished the stumping even though he didn’t gather it cleanly since the ball rebounded off his gloves and struck the stumps.
When Rahul Tewatia attempted a slog-sweep against Axar Patel, the ball twisted in, trapping the batter for a leg before wicket. Tewatia was forced to leave as GT kept sliding since the umpire’s call indicated that the ball was clipping side of the leg-stump.
Mohit Sharma made an attempt to escape, but he got stuck off Khaleel. Before the half-way point, Rashid Khan struck for four. He then launched Kuldeep over extra cover for six to score the first six of the innings. However, Pant was given a thin outside edge by Rashid as he attempted to cut a short ball from Mukesh. Mukesh trapped Noor Ahmad with a ball after that, ending GT’s innings in 17.3 overs.
In an attempt to chase a meagre ninety, Fraser-McGurk struck first, lofting Sandeep Warrier for six and four, then slicing twice off Spencer Johnson for the same outcome. His brief but explosive knock came to an end when he flicked a ball off of Johnson to mid-wicket for 20 off 10 balls.
In the third over, Warrier claimed his first wicket when Prithvi Shaw misplayed a well-placed bouncer, causing the ball to bubble to short third man. Before Warrier castled him, Porel was having fun punching and pulling for a four and two sixes.
Hope scored three fast boundaries with a combination of brilliant flicks and flat-bat strokes, then he reverse-swept to backward point off Rashid. Pant kept up his outstanding form, hitting Noor Ahmed for four runs off of a flat-batted drive before dancing down the pitch to clear long-off for six.
DC completed the chase in 53 legal deliveries as Sumit hammered Noor for a brace of fours, the second of which came off a bottom-edge. Their net run-rate increased from -0.975 to -0.074.
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