After opening batsman Shubman Gill’s career-best innings, Lockie Ferguson’s bowling bowled Gujarat Giants on Friday registered a second successive win over Delhi Capitals by 14 runs. Chasing the target of 172 runs for Gujarat Titans, Delhi could only manage 157 for nine in front of the sharp bowling of Ferguson (4 for 28) and Mohammed Shami (2 for 30).
Captain Rishabh Pant scored 43 runs for Delhi. Lalit Yadav (25) and Rovman Powell (20) failed to capitalize on a good start. Chasing the target, Delhi started poorly and the team lost three wickets for 34 runs. Hardik got Tim Seifert (03) caught by Abhinav Manohar at the score of eight runs in the second over.
Ferguson sent openers Prithvi Shaw (10) and Mandeep Singh (18) to the pavilion in the fifth over. The team of Delhi Capitals could only manage 43 runs for three wickets in the power play. Pant completed the team’s half-century in the seventh over with two consecutive fours on Ferguson. However, he was lucky on the second occasion when the ball after taking the edge of his bat touched wicketkeeper Matthew Wade’s glove and went for four runs.
Pant also hit fours on Rashid Khan and Varun Aaron. Lalit hit Rashid for the first six of the innings. Pant welcomed Vijay Shankar with two fours but Lalit was run out in the same over, ending the 61-run fourth wicket partnership. Lalit scored 25 runs in his innings of 22 balls with two fours and a six.
Powell opened the account with a four on Shankar and completed the team’s century in the 12th over. Powell hit a six on Rahul Tewatia but Ferguson returned to the bowling and got him caught by Manohar. Pant faced 29 balls and hit seven fours.
Axar Patel (08) hit Ferguson for two consecutive fours but was caught by Wade on the next ball. Delhi needed 46 runs in the last five overs. Rashid lbw Shardul Thakur (02) while Shami lbw Pavel to break Delhi’s true hope of victory. Delhi needed 27 runs in the last two overs. Hardik scored just three runs in the 19th over. Kuldeep Yadav (14 not out) hit a six in Tewatia’s last over but could not win the team.
Earlier, with opener Shubman Gill’s career-best innings, Gujarat Titans scored 171 for six against Delhi Capitals in an Indian Premier League match on Saturday. Gill played an innings of 84 runs in 46 balls with the help of four sixes and six fours. He added 42 runs for the second wicket with Vijay Shankar (13) and 65 runs for the third wicket with captain Hardik Pandya (31).
Mustafizur Rahman (3 for 23) and Khaleel Ahmed (2 for 34), however, did not allow the Gujarat team to score runs quickly in the final overs. Electing to bat after losing the toss, the Gujarat team lost the wicket of Matthew Wade (01) in the third ball itself, who was caught by wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant off Mustafizur.
Gill and Vijay Shankar (13) took the team’s score to 44 for one wicket in the power play. Shankar showed the pressure of slow batting and he got bowled in an attempt to play a big shot off the very first ball of left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav. He hit a boundary facing 20 balls.
Hardik was lucky after a ball when the ball took the edge of his bat but went for four runs between the wicketkeeper and the slip. Gill played some catchy shots. Apart from hitting two fours on Shardul Thakur, he hit left-arm spinner Axar Patel for a six. Hardik also increased the run rate with fours on Khaleel Ahmed, Axar and Thakur.