New Delhi: Defending champions Gujarat Titans defeated Delhi Capitals by six wickets with 11 balls to spare in the Indian Premier League T20 match here on Tuesday, thanks to Sai Sudarshan’s unbeaten 62-run sensible innings after a strong performance by the bowlers. Sudarshan hit four fours and two sixes in his 48-ball unbeaten innings, along with Vijay Shankar (29 off 23 balls) for the fourth wicket with 53 off 44 balls and David Miller (31 not out off 16 balls) for the fifth wicket. ) made an unbroken partnership of 59 runs in 29 balls. Batting first, Delhi scored 162 runs for eight wickets.
Gujarat achieved the target in 18.1 overs for the loss of four wickets. Enrique Norkia took two wickets for 39 runs in four overs for Gujarat. Khaleel Ahmed and Mitchell Marsh got 1-1 success. Earlier, Delhi scored a respectable score on the basis of all-rounder Akshar Patel’s innings of 36 runs in 22 balls.
Captain David Warner scored 37 off 32 balls and Sarfaraz Khan scored 30 off 34 balls for Delhi but both the batsmen struggled and failed to increase the run rate. Akshar hit two fours and three sixes in his innings. He was well supported by Abhishek Porel. The 20-year-old Porel impressed by scoring 20 runs in 11 balls with the help of two sixes.
Mohammed Shami and Rashid Khan took three wickets each for Gujarat. Shami however proved costly. He scored 41 runs in four overs while Rashid spent 31 runs in the same overs. Alzarri Joseph took two wickets for 29 runs in four overs. Joseph troubled the Delhi batsmen a lot with his bouncer balls. ‘Impact player’ instead of Sarfaraz for Delhi who came to defend the target; Khaleel Ahmed opens the bowling.
Wriddhiman Saha (14 runs) hit two fours and a six against Khaleel, while Shubman Gill hit two fours against Mukesh Kumar, scoring 22 runs in two overs, giving the team an aggressive start. Enrique Norkia, after bowling Saha on the first ball of the third over, sent Gill to the pavilion in the same fashion in the fifth over. However, in the same over, Sai Sudarshan hit a six. He hit a four against Khaleel in the next over, which completed the team’s fifty runs, but this left-arm bowler gave Delhi a big success by catching Hardik Pandya behind the wicket.
Delhi’s score in the powerplay was 54 for three. After this Josh Little was replaced by ‘Impact Player’ Vijay Shankar came on the field. While Sudarshan was concentrating on taking runs from one end, Shankar did not allow the required run-rate to increase by hitting fours against Mukesh in the ninth over and Kuldeep in the 10th over, Marsh in the 11th over and Khaleel in the 12th over. The team scored hundreds of runs on the fifth ball of the 12th over. Marsh broke Shankar’s 53-run partnership for the fourth wicket with Sudarshan in the 14th over. Against Mukesh Kumar, who came to bowl in the sixteenth over, David Miller hit two sixes and a four to turn the match towards Gujarat.
Sudarshan completed his half-century in 44 balls by hitting a four against Norkia in the next over. He hit a six off the last ball of the over, after which Miller hit Marsh for a four to give the team the win. Gujarat won the toss and decided to bowl first. Shami’s first ball came out touching the wicket but the bails did not fall and Warner was saved from being dismissed. 11 runs came from this over, out of which only four runs came off the bat.
Shami got the benefit of excellent bowling in the third over of the innings. He took advantage of the weakness of Prithvi Shaw (seven runs) on the shot ball, who returned to the pavilion by giving a simple catch to Alzarri Joseph at mid-on. Marsh (four runs), running in excellent rhythm, hit the first ball of the fifth over for a four, but Shami made a brilliant comeback by bowling him on the next ball. Warner, still struggling, hit a confident four off the last ball of the over.
He also hit a four against Hardik Pandya in the last over of the powerplay which helped the team score 52 for two in the powerplay, contributing 14 extra runs. Warner hit two fours against Joseph in the seventh over but the bowler completed the revenge by bowling him in the ninth over of the innings. Joseph surprised Riley Rosso with his pace off the next ball.
The ball took the outside edge of his bat and Rahul Tewatia dived forward to take a brilliant catch at point. However, he missed out on completing the hat-trick. The last ball of the over hit Sarfaraz on the head and he continued to play after the team doctor examined him for a concussion. The 20-year-old Porel, playing on debut, showed his intent by hitting Joseph for a six in the 11th over. In the 12th over, Sarfaraz was given a lifeline by Josh Little off the bowling of left-arm fast bowler Yash Dayal. On the last ball of the same over, Porel completed the team’s century by hitting another six. However, he failed to read Rashid Khan’s spin and was bowled after scoring 20 runs in 11 balls.
The team’s vice-captain Akshar Patel opened the account with fours as soon as he stepped on the crease. While Sarfaraz was struggling to play big shots from one end, Akshar from the other end tried to maintain the team’s run-rate by hitting a four against Joseph and a six against Rashid Khan. Sarfaraz hit Rashid’s first ball for a four in the 17th over but was caught by Little in an attempt to play another big shot.
The team’s hopes of a competitive score now rested on Akshar and the batsman kept it going by hitting a six against Little. Aman Hakim Khan (8 runs) hit a six against Rashid but returned to the pavilion by giving a catch to Pandya on the next ball. Akshar welcomed Shami with a six in the last over but was dismissed on the fourth ball of the over.
Enrique Norkia hit the last ball for a four and took the team’s score to 162. Regular captain Rishabh Pant also appeared in the stadium to encourage the team. Pant was badly injured in a car accident. He is currently undergoing rehabilitation after surgery.
