Delhi Capitals avoided a late scare to pull off a thrilling 4-run win against Gujarat Titans in the 40th match of the IPL 2024 on Wednesday. David Miller and Sai Sudharsan recorded brilliant fifties while chasing a mammoth target of 225 but fell three runs short in a valiant chase at Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.
Captain Rishabh Pant smashed 88* off just 43 balls and Axar recorded 66 off 43 balls to help Delhi post their third-highest IPL total. Miller and Sudharsan kept Gujarat alive in the big chase and then Rashid Kan almost pulled off a record-breaking chase but Delhi managed to defend 19 runs in the last over.
With their fourth win of the season, Delhi jumped to sixth position in the points table to greatly boost their playoff qualification hopes and Shubman Gill-led Gujarat slipped to seventh place after suffering their fifth defeat of the season.
Coming into this game with a heavy loss, Delhi dropped the veteran opener David Warner while Gujarat remained unchanged. Sandeep Warrier gave Gujarat a sensational start by removing Delhi openers Jake Fraser-McGurk and Prithvi Shaw in the fourth over.
Warrier then dismisses returning Shai Hope to stumble Delhi to 44/3 in powerplay overs. But the hosts managed to make a sensational comeback with Axar and Rishabh scorching 113 runs for the fourth wicket. Both left-handed batters dominated the middle over with sensible cricket first and then went big to keep Delhi on track for a big total.
Axar scored 66 off 43 but it was Rishabh’s unbeaten 88 off 43 balls with the help of five fours and eight sixes that made the difference. The wicketkeeper batter smashed 30 runs off Mohit Sharma in the last over to boost Delhi to 224/4 in 20 overs. Warrier took three wickets for 15 while Mohit produced the most expensive figures of 0/73 in IPL history.
Chasing a tough target, Gujarat lost their main batter and skipper Shubam Gill to Anrich Nortje in the second over. But in-form Sai Sudharsan and the veteran wicketkeeper batter Wriddhiman Saha kept Gujarat alive with an 83-run partnership for the second wicket.
Kuldeep Yadav gave Delhi a breakthrough with Saha’s wicket in the 10th over and then Gujarat struggled to find momentum. Young pacer Rasik Salam, playing his sixth IPL game, took three wickets to put Delhi in a dominant position but David Miller’s 21-ball fifty helped Gujarat make a late comeback.
Chasing 19 runs in the last over off Mukesh Kumar, the Afghan star Rashid Khan smashed three boundaries but failed to make it when Gujarat needed five runs off the last ball to win the game. Rishabh bagged the Player of the Match award for his explosive innings ahead of Axar and Rasik.
Delhi Capitals Playing XI: Prithvi Shaw (substituted by Rasikh Salam), Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abishek Porel, Shai Hope, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Anrich Nortje, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar.
Gujarat Titans Playing XI: Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Shubman Gill (c), David Miller, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rahul Tewatia, Shahrukh Khan, Rashid Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Noor Ahmad, Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Warrier (substituted by Sai Sudharsan).