New Delhi: Sai Sudarshan's unbeaten 62 off 48 balls helped defending champions Gujarat Titans to register yet another impressive performance by defeating Delhi Capitals by 6 wickets in the 7th match of 2023 IPL at Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Tuesday.
Sudharsan batted magnificently to notch up his second IPL fifty, and was unconquered as he took his team to past the winning post with 1.5 overs to spare.
Struggling at 54/3, Sudarshan joined Impact Player Vijay Shankar (29 off 23) and brought up a crucial 53 runs for 4th wicket stand. The duo steadied the innings and smashed odd boundaries to keep in the hunt the 163 runs chase.
Mitchell Marsh broke the partnership, and DC managed to put a tight leash, but in the 16th over, David Miller (31 off 16 2x4s 2x6s) struck two sixes and a boundary to squeeze out DC hopes of winning.
The chase was not easy as the pitch favoured fast bowlers, but Wriddhiman Saha scored a quickfire 14 in the very first over. Inform Shubman Gill (14) also joined the party and pounded a couple of boundaries in the next over. But, the GT openers perished to Anrich Nortje's nippy deliveries.
Khaleel Ahmed bowled an expensive first over, but nipped out Hardik Pandya for five, caught behind by Abhishek Porel on the final ball of the powerplay.
Batting first, DC fought back to make 162/8 by riding high on Axar Patel's cameo. He hammered 36 in 22 balls on a track where David Warner (37* off 32) and Sarfaraz Khan (30 off 34) struggled to up the ante.
Axar had Abhishek Porel, a handy partner, making a crucial 20 off 11 balls. Nortje's last-ball boundary saw DC going past the 160-run mark in conditions cut out for pace bowlers.
DC started off grimly as they lost Prithvi Shaw (7) quite early to Mohammad Shami attempting a big pull shot.
Marsh (4) failed yet again, becoming Shami's second victim. Warner steadied the ship, but Alzarri Joseph steamed in and scalped two wickets after which Sarfaraz tried to reconstruct with debutant Porel.
The debutant Porel lost his wicket on the first ball of right-arm leggie Rashid Khan.
Alzarri bagged two wickets, while Shami and Rashid picked 3 wickets each, respectively. (UNI)
