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Powered by skipper Rishabh Pant's sensational 88 off just 43 balls, Delhi Capitals (DC) clinched a thrilling 4-run victory over Gujarat Titans in the 40th match of IPL 2024 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday.
In pursuit of a challenging target of 225 runs, the Titans displayed resilience, but fell short, settling for 221/8 at the end of 20 overs.
The Titans started steadily but suffered a setback when their captain, Shubman Gill, fell to Anrich Nortje's delivery in the second over, caught by Axar Patel after scoring 6 runs from 5 balls.
On the very next delivery, Azmatullah Omarzai was dismissed by Axar Patel after scoring just one run off two balls. The Titans lost their fourth wicket when Sudharsan, who had played a resilient innings, was caught by Axar off Rasikh Salam's delivery in the 13th over, departing after scoring 65 runs off 39 balls.
Shahrukh Khan stepped in but faced another disappointing performance, becoming Salam's second victim of the evening when he lost his wicket in the 15th over, managing just 8 runs from 5 balls.
Rahul Tewatia also couldn't provide the much-needed rescue to his side, falling prey to Kuldeep Yadav on the final delivery of the 16th over. Tewatia managed just 4 runs from 5 balls.
In the nail-biting penultimate over, Sai Kishore unleashed two consecutive sixes, while Rashid Khan contributed with a timely boundary. However, the excitement took a downturn on the final delivery of the over when Rashik Salam upended Sai's stumps, limiting him to a brisk 13 runs off 6 balls.
In the first innings, captain Rishabh Pant slammed an unbeaten 88 off 43 balls, while Axar Patel hit a 43-ball 66 to lift Delhi Capitals to a mammoth 224/4.
Axar made his promotion to number three count by hitting five fours and four sixes in his eye-catching knock at a strike-rate of 153.49. Pant was at his magnificent best in hitting eight sixes and five fours at a strike-rate of 204.6. DC took 97 runs in their final five overs.
Pushed into batting first, Prithvi Shaw and Jake Fraser-McGurk hit six delightful boundaries as DC reached 34/0 in three overs. But Warrier bounced back in the fourth over after conceding 12 runs in his opening over.
DC ended the six-over phase with 44/3. Meanwhile, Axar reached his fifty in 37 balls with a pulled four off Rashid.
Pant got his fifty in 34 balls by lofting a full-toss from Mohit over long-on for six, and was met with a grand applause from the crowd. GT brought in R Sai Kishore’s left-arm spin in the 19th over to counter right-handed Tristan Stubbs.
But the batter creamed the drives twice in the gap between extra-cover and long-off, followed by clubbing the spinner for two mammoth sixes over long-on in the 22-run over. In the last over, Pant managed to clear long-on for six and sliced a four despite losing balance against Mohit. He would pull, loft and swivel Mohit for maximums on the last three balls of the innings to take 31 runs off the final over.
With inputs from IANS.
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