DELHI Capitals rode on their captain’s incredible knock of 88 from 43 balls to eke out a narrow four-run victory over Gujarat Titans, despite the best efforts of Sai Sudharsan, David Miller and Rashid Khan to stop the hosts from doing the double over them.

Pant’s knock, along with Axar Patel’s essay (66 off 43) and Tristan Stubbs’s late cameo (26 off seven) turbo-charged DC’s innings well past the 200-run mark, and yet proved to be just about enough to pick up the two points in the end.

GT started the game better and matched DC through the middle overs, but the backend carnage that saw DC smash 11 sixes in the last five overs made the difference. 22 off the 19th over and 31 off the last pushed DC to a total they weren’t even close to getting just a few overs before. GT fell short despite smashing at 14.6 in the last five overs, reiterating the importance of the finish DC got with the bat on the night.

Jake Fraser-McGurk flirted with danger as he always does, and succeeded until the fourth over when his big flick went straight to Noor Ahmad at deep square leg. Three balls later, Prithvi Shaw went for a pull and was sent back by Noor’s incredible forward-diving catch at the same position.

The move to promote Axar to number three worked well for DC as he joined forces with his captain to take down spin in the middle overs.
Pant kickstarted the death-overs proceedings with a helicopter-like whip for a six off Mohit.

He tonked one over extra cover in the same over, which fetched 16 runs. Noor was trusted to bowl in the death and Axar welcomed it with two big sixes, but also fell in the 14-run over for an excellent 66 off 43 balls. Stubbs walked out with a similar wavelength, adding to the six barrage. Pant then demolished Mohit in the last, taking 31 off it.

The GT pacer finished with the most expensive bowling figures in IPL history – 0 for 73 – with Pant smashing 62 of those in 18 balls.
Wriddhiman Saha made the most of a fast outfield to hit five fours to get 33 off 15 in this phase. DC made the big early incision with the wicket of Shubman Gill, but Sai Sudharsan, their impact substitute, started with a six and kept up the tempo.

Two splendid catches put the brakes on GT’s progress in the middle-overs. First, Axar atoned for his earlier drop with a well-timed jump to take a sharp catch at cover to end Saha’s innings. Then, Fraser-McGurk took a Noor-like blinder – running in from deep square leg and diving forward to see the back of Azmatullah Omarzai. Sudharsan however, kept his foot on the pedal, getting a 29-ball half-century.

Kuldeep added an extra mile to GT’s big climb at the death as he conceded five and took out Rahul Tewatia in the 16th over. David Miller, however, narrowed the gap between balls remaining and runs required by taking 24 off his national-side compatriot Anrich Nortje.

DC could feel the pressure as Abishek Porel spilt a tough catching chance at deep square leg off Rashid Khan, but Salam did well at long on to end Miller’s flying knock of 55 from just 23 balls. That wicket was expected to end GT’s chase but it didn’t.
Sai Kishore swung for the fences and connected each time, smashing two sixes off Salam before getting bowled by the same bowler. Rashid brought the equation down from 19 off 6 to 5 off 1, but couldn’t get his team over the line despite some fabulous hitting. (Cricbuzz)