AHMEDABAD, India (AP) — Gujarat Titans crashed to their lowest-ever score of 89 as Delhi Capitals notched a six-wicket win in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.
Delhi cashed in on a small target in a bid improve its net run-rate and romped to 92-4 in only 8.5 overs that lifted it to No. 6 on the table after three wins from seven league games.
Gujarat’s previous low IPL total was 125, also made against Delhi at Ahmedabad last year as the 2022 champion and last year’s finalist dropped to No. 7 on net run-rate with three wins from seven games.
The new slow pitch at home didn’t work well for Gujarat after captain Shubman Gill lost the toss and was put in to bat. Gill fell into the trap early when he chipped an easy catch into the cover off Ishant Sharma’s (2-8) full pitched delivery.
David Miller was brilliantly caught left-handedly by Delhi skipper Rishabh Pant behind the wickets off Sharma as Gujarat slumped to 30-4 in the first five overs.
With the ball gripping on a slow surface, Pant’s experimentation with the offspin of Tristan Stubbs paid off when the South African chipped in with two wickets off his one over. Pant did two sharp stumpings of Abhinav Manohar (8) and Shahrukh Khan (0) off Stubbs successive deliveries.
Rashid Khan top-scored with 31 and was one of the three batters to reach double figures along with Sai Sudharsan (12) and Rahul Tewatia (10) before fast bowler Mukesh Kumar (3-14) wrapped up the tail and got Gujarat bowled out in 17.3 overs.
Australia’s young batting sensation Jake Fraser-McGurk, who made a half-century in his impactful IPL debut game against Lucknow Super Giants in the last match, thumped two sixes and two boundaries in his 10-ball knock of 20 as Delhi looked for a quick finish.
Surprisingly, Gill didn’t use his ace leg-spinner Rashid until the last over of batting power play as Delhi raced to 65-3 inside the first five overs.
Fast bowler Sandeep Warrier, in his first IPL game for Gujarat, was smacked for 40 runs off his three overs in the batting powerplay, for the wickets of Prithvi Shaw (7) off a steep bouncer and impact substitute batter Abishek Porel (15) was bowled while going for a big shot.
Rashid had Shai Hope caught (19) off a reverse sweep in his first over before Delhi cruised to victory.
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