Capitals of Delhi 224 for 4 (Pant 88*, Axar 66, Warrier 3-15) win Gujarat Titans 220 for 8 (Sai Sudharsan 65, Miller 55, Saha 39, Salam 3-44, Kuldeep 2-29) by four runs
Sudarshan and Miller make it a contest
Shubman Gill fell to Anrich Nortje early, for the fourth time in seven innings, but that didn’t slow down GT. Wriddhiman Saha hit 30 off his first 12 balls, skilfully clearing the infield and Sudharsan made full use of an early suspension from Rasikh Salam’s bowling to clear the blocks. They didn’t let Nortje or Khaleel Ahmed settle and put up 67 in the powerplay.
But the spinners then blocked Saha and Kuldeep dismissed him for 35 in 29 balls. Sundarshan, however, dominated the middle overs, hitting both seamers and spinners through the off side with cuts in front and behind square. He also went down the pitch at times before falling to Salam in an attempt to clear away.
With Azmatullah Omarzai, Shahrukh Khan and Rahul Tewatia falling to single figures around Sudharsan’s dismissal, GT appeared to have lost sight, needing 73 in 24 balls. However, Miller hit Nortje for three sixes and a four in a 17th 24-run stand to give them hope, completing his own 21-ball half-century along the way.
The saw continued. Mukesh dismissed Miller in the 18th over and, at that point, it looked like DC had done enough. But Salam leaked 18 runs in the 19th over to bowl a penalty between Rashid and Mukesh in the final over.
Mukesh got two fours off the first two balls and a six off the penultimate delivery but held his nerve to get the last ball so full that Rashid couldn’t find the elevation he needed.
The Titans’ coils were neutralized
After Warrier’s three-wicket burst gave GT the edge from the start, they would expect Rashid, Noor Ahmad and R Sai Kishore to strangle DC in the middle overs. But Axar and Pad kept all three at bay.
Against Rashid, they only attacked loose balls, half-trackers or wide deliveries, and scored 37 runs from his four wicketless overs. Against Noor they attacked to concede 12 in three overs.
Gill opted for the experience of Mohit Sharma over Warrier for the 20th over, and Pant owned this match-up. When Mohit went for the wicket, Pant slapped him for offside. When Mohit goes short or slow, Pant would hang back and leave him on the leg side. And when Mohit missed his yorker, Pant sent him to mid-off. Pant reached 88 after a final 31 runs, and his onslaught left Mohit with the worst bowling figures in IPL history – 0 for 73 – and GT needed 225 to win.
Axar’s many contributions
With David Warner sitting out and DC not interested in the Pant bat too early, they pushed Axar as the left-handed batsman in the top three. He hit Rashid for a slog sweep over the leg side initially before hitting both him and Noor through covers off short balls.
Part-timer Shahrukh also met the same fate before Axar reached his fifty with a boundary from Rashid in the 15th over. He was the dominant contributor in the 68-ball 113-run stand with Pant, and it was only in his pursuit of his third six in a row against Noor in the 17th over that he fell on the boundary line. 66 was the highest score of the IPL.
Axar was then a live wire on the field, first back-pedaling at mid-on in the second over to hold a catch to dismiss Gill. He was back in action when Saha tried to cut Kuldeep from cover, leaping high and sticking his arms out to pluck the catch. Then, after dropping Sudharsan early in the powerplay, Axar had a chance to redeem himself when he was too late to take a difficult one.
With the ball, Axar conceded just two fours and a six in his three overs. Neither Saha nor Miller, both in excellent touch otherwise, were able to remove him and it was only Sudarshan’s three boundary shots that saw him concede 28 in three overs. Axar also dismissed Omarzai in the 11th over, but it was not enough to claim the man of the match award, with that going to his captain.
Sreshth Shah is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @sreshthx