Shubman Gill’s sublime knock set it up with thae willow and Lockie Ferguson built on it with the ball as Gujarat Titans broke Delhi Capitals’ resistance in style in the Indian Premier League at the Maharashtra Cricket Association’s International Stadium on Saturday.
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Riding on Gill’s 84 (46b, 6x4, 4x6), Titans, one of the two IPL entrants, recovered from a mini-stutter to put on 171 for six after being made to bat first. Ferguson’s (4/20) raw pace and precision with short-pitched bowling meant that despite a shorter boundary on one side, the Capitals fell short by 14 runs.
Ferguson’s double-wicket burst in the Powerplay meant the onus was on captain Rishabh Pant and Lalit Yadav. With Varun Aaron having left the field after bowling just one over, the duo was trying its best to stretch the game deep. However, Lalit was run out after being sent back by Pant in the 12th over.
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Ferguson was then brought back on and he repeated the double-wicket act, accounting for Pant and Axar Patel in the 15th over with short balls.
Captain Hardik Pandya then saved the last remaining over by the fifth bowler for the last and the move worked as Rashid Khan got rid of Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Shami trapped Rovman Powell, the designated finisher to seal the deal for the Titans.
Had it not been for Gill’s classy knock, the Capitals would have been chasing a much lesser target. Gill put all the doubts about his questionable strike-rate to rest by playing the role of the anchor-cum-accelerator to perfection.
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He displayed his wide range of strokes. Be it his stand-up swat through covers off pacers or his lap-shot to fine-leg off Khaleel Ahmed or the slog-sweep into the stands against the turn off Axar Patel’s left-arm spin, Gill was at his sublime best.
The other feature of his innings was the elan with which he rotated the strike. Even when Vijay struggled to time in the ball in the Powerplay after Matthew Wade’s attempted innovation resulted in his downfall in the first over or when captain Hardik Pandya took his time early on, not once did Gill play two dot-balls in a row.
In fact, including his miscued half-pull off Khaleel that resulted in his dismissal in the 18th over, Gill’s innings had only six dot-balls. It ensured that the Titans, despite being unable to dominate as a unit, were never under the pressure.
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Teams:
Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill, Matthew Wade (wk), Vijay Shankar, Abhinav Manohar, Hardik Pandya (c), David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Varun Aaron, Lockie Ferguson, Mohammed Shami.
Delhi Capitals: Prithvi Shaw, Tim Seifert, Mandeep Singh, Rishabh Pant (c, wk), Rovman Powell, Lalit Yadav, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman.