IPL24: Pant dazzles as Delhi overcome big scare from Gujarat to win by 4 runs

 



Shubman Gill's 100th match of IPL was not a happy one.  The Gujarat Titans skipper did not get many runs and  his team can't win either.  Gujarat lost by 4 runs to Rishabh Pant's Delhi Capitals.  In fact, the Titans  lost to Pant's aggressive & explosive  batting.



 Shubman won the toss and decided to field first.  No runs were scored by Delhi's early recognized batters.  However, Delhi picked up 224 runs for 4 wickets against Gujarat Titans.  Pant exploded with the bat under pressure.  He was accompanied by Akshar Patel.   Delhi set a target of 225 to win against Shubman's side thanks to their fightback.  Gujarat's innings ended at 220 for 8.


 Delhi's two openers Prithvi Shaw and Jake Fraser McGruk exploded briefly .  Both were dismissed by Sandeep Warrier.  Fraser made 23 off 14 balls. He looked  dangerous and smashed 2 fours and a six.  11 off 7 balls from Prithvi's bat.  His out decision is somewhat controversial.  Whether Noor Ahmed caught his catch cleanly, it was not clearly understood in the television replay.  The third umpire gave it out.  Sai Hope (5) also failed at number four.  Akshar fought hard in the face of pressure.  His sparkling innings of 66 runs off 43 balls gave Delhi hope.   The left-handed all-rounder gave the trust of the team.  He decorated his innings with 5 fours and 4 sixes.


Skipper Pant added an extra dimension to Delhi's innings.  Especially in the last few overs of the innings, he was seen in his familiar destructive mood.  Mohit Sharma leaked 30 runs with the ball in the last over. Pant hit sixes in four of the last five balls.   In the end he made an explosive 88 runs off 43 balls.  5 fours and 8 sixes came from the Delhi captain's bat in an unbeaten innings.  Tristan Stubbs played an unbeaten innings of 26 runs off 7 balls.  Hit 3 fours and 2 sixes.  Delhi were 143 runs at the end of 16 overs.  Delhi added 81 runs in the last four overs mainly under the influence of Pant.  By taking the team's innings to a strong place, Pant made it clear that he is fully ready for the upcoming T20 World Cup.


 Sandeep Warrier was the most successful of the Gujarat bowlers taking 3 wickets at the cost of 15 runs.  Noor took 1 wicket for 36 runs.  No other bowler from Shubman's team got a wicket.  Gujarat gave 73 runs in 4 overs.  Rashid Khan did not get a wicket despite spending 35 runs.



In response, Gujarat lost the wicket of skipper Shubman (6) at the beginning .  Wriddhiman Saha led the team's innings and Sai Sudarshan, who came to the XI as an impact player.  Opener Saha scored an attacking  39 runs off 25 balls.  The former Bengal wicketkeeper-batsman hit 5 fours and 1 six.  Sudarshan's innings of 65 runs came from 39 balls.  He hit 7 fours and 2 sixes.  Wriddhiman-Sudarshan added 82 runs for the second wicket pair.  Other Gujarat batsmen not getting runs created some pressure.  David Miller, who has been out of form for so long, returned to Delhi's 22-yard run.  The South African batsman scored an explosive 55 runs off 23 balls.  He hit 6 fours and 3 sixes.  All the Delhi bowlers looked practically helpless in front of him.  In the end he was dismissed by Bengal's Mukesh Kumar.  Sai Kishore and Rashid Khan fought in the end.  Kishore made 13 off 6 balls.  Hit 2 sixes off Salam.  Rashid remained unbeaten with 21 runs off 11 balls and nearly snatched a win in the last over.


 Apart from Mukesh, Delhi bowlers Akshar, Rasikh Salam, Kuldeep Yadav bowled well.  Kuldeep took 2 wickets for 29 runs.  Akshar's 1 wicket for 28 runs.  3 wickets for Rasikh's 44 runs.  Nortje took 1 wicket with 48 runs but was very expensive in his last over when Miller went after him .  Mukesh took 1 wicket costing 41 runs and bowled the crucial final over managing to defend 19 against a rampant Rashid Khan .


With this important win , Delhi Capitals reaches 8 points and moves one step ahead of Gujarat Titans ( also on 8 points) on net run rate . Delhi Capitals are at 6th spot in the points table and has kept their hopes alive for a playoffs berth 

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