Anrich Nortje thundered in and stopped any potential good start that Gujarat Titans were off to in their chase of 163. inIform openers Wriddhiman Saha and Shubman Gill were sent back by the fiery pacer while Hardik Pandya then fell to Khaleel Ahmed. Vijay Shankar and Sai Sudharsan then calmed things down and got the GT chase back on track. Sudharsan has since gone on to score a masterful half century and has put GT on cruise mode with David Miller. It has been a pacer’s paradise for much of the Delhi Capitals innings as well at the Arun Jaitley Stadium but Rashid Khan came in towards the end, bowled four overs on the trot and took three wickets. Alzarri Joseph and Mohammed Shami didn’t allow DC’s big guns to get going in the beginning but the home side managed to get some momentum towards the end and scored 162/8 in their 20 overs. Prithvi Shaw fell to Shami attempting a big pull shot early on after which Mitchell Marsh could not make a mark yet again, becoming Shami’s second wicket. While Warner seemed to have steadied things up, Alzarri Joseph came in and picked two wickets after which Sarfaraz tried rebuilding the innings with debutant Abishek Porel. Porel, however, fell to Rashid Khan off the latter’s first ball of the match. It was the Axar Patel show briefly after that as the all-rounder smashed 36 in 22 balls on a pitch where Warner and Sarfaraz struggled to keep a strike rate of over 100. It was the late big hits from Axar and Porel, alongwith a last ball four from Anrich Nortje, that got DC past the 160-run mark in conditions that seem to be favouring the pace bowlers.
Yet another clinical chase from the Gujarat Titans. Unlike the last time around, the Titans had their backs to the wall between the sixth and 10th overs but Sai Sudharsan saw them through, first steadying things with Vijay Shankar, and then speeding it up with David Miller. He put up 53 off 44 with Shankar for the fourth wicket, then an unbeaten 56-run stand off 29 balls with Miller.
