CHENNAI: Rishabh Pant and Axar Patel's half-centuries and collective bowling performance took Delhi Capitals to a victory at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi.
Aiming for their highest successful chase in the IPL, Gujarat needed a firey start, but they lost their captain Shubman Gill in the second over. B Sai Sudharsan, Gujarat's Impact Sub, smashed a six off Anrich Nortje to show his intentions. He and Wriddhiman Saha went after Khaleel Ahmed to take 17 runs.
The duo made the most of the powerplay conditions to take Gujarat to 67/1 in the powerplay. The introduction of spin from both ends in Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav, relatively slowed down the scoring rate for Gujarat. Saha succumbed to the pressure and lost his wicket off Yadav.
In the next over, Patel dismissed Azmatullah Omarzai to derail Gujarat even more. Meanwhile, Sai Sudarshan became the first Gujarat player other than Gill to score a half-ton this season as he reached the milestone in 29 balls. Once he and Shahrukh Khan lost their wickets in quick succession, it felt like all hopes were lost, but David Miller stood firm for his side, even after losing hard-hitting Rahul Tewatia to Tadav for just 4.
Miller took 24 runs in Nortje's third over. Rasikh Salam first took a catch to remove Miller and later took a wicket of Sai Kishore to leave 19 runs in the final over. Rashid Khan tried his best with two fours and a six, but couldn't hit a six off the last ball, and Delhi won by 4 runs.
Earlier, Gujarat won the toss and opted to bowl first with no changes in their playing XI. Azmatullah Omarzai went for 10 runs in his first over and Sandeep Warrier went for 12 as Prithvi Shaw and Jake Fraser-McGurk started really well.
With Delhi at 34 without any loss after three overs, Warrier broke the partnership with two wickets in his two overs. Delhi lost Shai Hope soon as they were struggling with 44/3 after the powerplay.
Pant took his time to get going while Patel made most of his chances. The duo went after spinners, Noor Ahmad and Rashid Khan and took Delhi to 80/3 after 10 overs. Given the trends in this season of the IPL, Delhi were way away from the total they would have needed to feel safe in the first innings. Patel brought up his half-century off 37 balls, his first of this season. Pant took control of the innings and smashed two sixes in Mohit Sharma's second over. Patel tried to up the ante and scored two back-to-back sixes off Noor, but got out trying to go for the third six in a row.
With 18 balls left in the innings, Pant completed his third half-century of this season. Tristan Stubbs then went berserk against Sai Kishore, who was introduced in the 19th over by captain Gill as 22 runs came from the penultimate over. Pant took the destructive batting to the next level and smoked 31 runs in the final over. Mohit Sharma gave away 73 runs in his four overs, the most expensive spell in IPL as Delhi scored 224 in the first innings.
Brief score: Delhi Captitals 224/4 in 20 overs (Rishabh Pant 88 n.o, Axar Patel 66; Sandeep Warrier 3/15) bt Gujarat Titans 220/8 in 20 overs (Sai Sudharsan 65, David Miller 55; Rasikh Salam 3/44)