By Neil Manthorp.
David Miller’s emphatic, unbeaten 31 from just 16 balls led the Gujarat Titans to a six-wicket victory against the Delhi Capitals in their IPL match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Tuesday evening.
Chasing a modest 163 for victory Miller and Sai Sudharsan (62*) made light work of a potentially tricky situation at 107-4 to win the match with 11 balls to spare.
Brilliant Afghani legspinner Rashid Khan earlier claimed three wickets and fast bowlers Mohammad Shami and Antiguan Alzarri Joseph an early brace each to help restrict the Capitals to a below-par total of 162-8 before Axar Patel smashed 36 from only 22 balls (2×4, 3×6) in the final overs to give the home side a chance.
Anrich Nortje delivered a fiery opening two-over burst which cost 20 runs but delivered the wickets of openers Wriddhiman Saha (14) and Shubman Gill (14), both clean bowled, to reduce the Titans to 36-2 and left-arm seamer Khaleel Ahmed found the outside edge of Hardik Pandya’s bat to put the pressure on at 54-3.
But Sai Sudharsan and Vijay Shankar (29) added 53 for the fourth wicket to ease the run chase pressure allowing Miller to do Miller things.
Shami conceded 29 runs in his three Power Play overs but had Prithvi Shaw (7) caught at mid on before bowling Mitchell Marsh (4) off an inside edge.
Joseph (2-29) was brought on immediately after the Power Play which Delhi finished on 52-2 and made an immediate impact by forcing a struggling David Warner to edge onto his stumps for 37 from 32 balls before delivering a first-ball snorter to Rilee Rossouw (0) who could only glove the rising delivery to gully.
Left hander Abishek Porel (20 from 11 balls) blasted two sixes but the great Rashid Khan’s second delivery, a fizzing leg-break, crashed into his leg stump leaving the Capitals struggling on 101-5.
Sarfaraz Khan (30 from 34 balls) struggled even more than Warner on a pitch with pace and bounce before Rashid had both him and Hakim Khan caught to finish with 3-31 from his four overs. Shami finished with 3-41 with the wicket of Axar in the final over.
The defending champions, Titans, won the tournament’s opening game against the Chennai Super Kings by a commanding five-wickets while the Capitals were even more comprehensively outplayed in their first match going down by 50-runs to the Lucknow Super Giants in Lucknow.
DELHI CAPITALS: Prithvi Shaw, David Warner (captain), Mitchell Marsh, Rilee Rossouw, Sarfaraz Khan (w), Axar Patel, Abishek Porel, Kuldeep Yadav, Chetan Sakariya, Khaleel Ahmed, Anrich Nortje.
GUJARAT TITANS: Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Hardik Pandya (captain), David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Joshua Little, Yash Dayal, Alzarri Joseph.