CHENNAI: On a slightly sluggish fresh black soil surface, Gujarat Titans came up a cropper against the Delhi Capitals. Delhi, who have been up and down so far, opted to bowl first before coming up with a clinical display with the ball. Gujarat like to take their time with the bat (they are the worst six-hitting team in 2024) before exploding at the back-end of the innings.
On Wednesday night, Delhi did not give them a sniff as they plucked the air out of the innings even before the powerplay.
Before the end of the six overs itself, the hosts had lost four wickets as Ishant Sharma and Mukesh Kumar found the right length and speed to bowl on this surface. David Miller, back in after an injury, departed cheaply and the middle-order, which usually provides the finishing kick for the side, folded with 15 balls left in the innings. Only Rashid Khan's 24-ball 31 helped the franchise cross the 75 mark. That was never going to trouble Delhi and they coasted to a comfortable win with 67 balls to spare. The win also lifted them to sixth in the table, level with Gujarat and Lucknow.
Unlike some of the other franchises, Gujarat do not have the power-hitting abilities of some of the other teams in the powerplay. So, they have had to improvise. Wriddhiman Saha is the enforcer inside the first six overs while Shubman Gill's silken strokeplay keeps the scoreboard moving at an acceptable pace. Of late, B Sai Sudharsan is another batter of a similar ilk. Together, Gill and Sudharsan are key to how they set-up in the first phase of the innings.
Remove them and it's akin to cutting the oxygen flow (they are the only batters with more than 115 runs for the team). Delhi did that as they removed all three of them in the first 4.1 overs.
Gill chipped a catch to cover off Ishant as the ball held on the surface a touch. Saha, feeling the pressure to find the boundary, went for a 10-ball two while going for a wild across-the-line hoick off Mukesh. Sudharsan was the next to go as he took off for a quick single after nudging the ball to the leg side but a direct hit found him short.
With the pitch showing signs of some uneven bounce and turn, Rishabh Pant turned his attention towards the spinners and they delivered. While Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel kept it tight, it was the part-time spin of Tristan Stubbs who began the slide. His off-spin brought about two stumpings in an all-action over as Pant remained alive to the possibilities off Abhinav Manohar.
At 5/47, they had no option but to bring in Shahrukh Khan as an impact sub. However, he also perished to Stubbs. He had looked to go across his stumps but had taken a few steps down the wicket. However, the ball went under his bat, hit Pant's gloves and ricocheted on to the stumps with the TN batter short. Rashid hung on to hit a few lusty blows but it was all academic.
Brief scores: Gujarat Titans 89 all out in 17.3 ovs (Rashid Khan 31; Mukesh Kumar 3/14) lost to Delhi Capitals 92/4 in 8.5 ovs (Fraser-McGurk 20).