Narendra Modi Stadium: Ishant Sharma took two crucial scalps in power-play while Mukesh Kumar shined with 3-14 to lead an impressive bowling show for Delhi Capitals to bowl out Gujarat Titans’ for just 89 at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Wednesday.
On a black-soil pitch which was used for the first time in this season, the ball kept low, came slow on the batters and gripped a bit for spinners. All of these were ideal for DC bowlers to bowl economical spells and keep GT on a very tight leash, with Mukesh clinching his best-ever bowling figures in the IPL.
DC were also very sharp in their fielding, with captain Rishabh Pant using his bowlers very well and taking catches plus effecting stumpings in quick fashion. GT being bundled out for 89 is now their lowest ever total since entering the IPL fold in 2022. Their previous lowest total in the IPL was 125, which co-incidentally also came against DC in Ahmedabad last year.
Electing to bowl first, Ishant landed the first blow by getting Shubman Gill to drive straight to cover in the second over. Wriddhiman Saha tried to hoick across the line against Mukesh, but chopped on to uproot his middle-stump in the fourth over.
GT plunged into more trouble as Sai Sudharsan, who punched and creamed the drive off Khaleel Ahmed for back-to-back boundaries, was run-out by a brilliant direct hit from Sumit Kumar running in from short mid-wicket at the non-striker’s end despite making a desperate dive.
In the same over, David Miller got a slight inside-edge off Ishant and Pant dived full stretch to his left for taking a low catch, followed by getting the decision changed successfully on review. A maiden over from Khaleel ended the power-play with GT at 30/4.
The score became 47/5 in the ninth over as Abhinav Manohar tried to push at an outside off-stump delivery from Tristan Stubbs and Pant was quick to dislodge the bails for completing the stumping.
A ball later, impact player Shahrukh Khan stepped down the pitch to pull off Stubbs, but missed it and Pant, despite not gathering it cleanly, completed the stumping as the ball bounced off his gloves to hit the stumps.
Rahul Tewatia went for the slog-sweep against Axar Patel, but the ball turned in to trap the batter lbw. With umpire’s call showing the ball clipping side of leg-stump, Tewatia had to depart as GT continued to slide.
Mohit Sharma tried to break free, but holed out in the deep off Khaleel. Rashid Khan, who hit a four before the half-way mark, hit the first six of the innings by launching Kuldeep over extra cover for six. But in a bid to slash a short ball from Mukesh, Rashid gave a faint outside edge behind to Pant. A ball later, Mukesh castled Noor Ahmad to end GT’s innings in 17.3 overs.
Brief Scores: Gujarat Titans 89 in 17.3 overs (Rashid Khan 31; Mukesh Kumar 3-14, Ishant Sharma 2-8) against Delhi Capitals
