Gujarat Giants. (Photo Source: IPL)
The Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi hosted the seventh match of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 between Delhi Capitals (DC) and Gujarat Titans (GT). Visiting skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss, and invited the Delhi-based franchise to bat. With tight bowling, Gujarat restricted the David Warner-led franchise to a score of 162/8, which also stood as the lowest first innings total in the tournament thus far.
David Warner (37 off 32), Sarfaraz Khan (30 off 34) struggled to score swiftly. However, debutant Abishek Porel (20 off 11) and Axar Patel (36 off 22) played crucial knocks to steady the flow of runs after their top order failed to perform. For Gujarat, veteran pacer Mohammed Shami and leg spinner Rashid Khan took three wickets each, whereas Alzarri Joseph took two wickets.
In reply, Proteas’ pacer Anrich Nortje broke through early by taking wickets of the opening duo of Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha, which left the Ahmedabad-based franchise in big trouble. Khaleel Ahmed, who holds terrific record against Hardik, got his wicket again as he edged one behind the stumps. With the fall of his wicket, GT were reeling at 54/3. At the end of 13 overs, the game was equally poised as DC had 57 runs to defend while Gujarat did not lose any further wicket.
On the third ball of the 14th over, a well set Vijay Shankar (29 off 23) was caught in front of the stumps off Mitch Marsh’s delivery. Coming into bat, the experienced David Miller took the onus upon himself as he smacked Mukesh Kumar for a boundary and two maximums. Sai Sudharsan scored a well-compiled fifty by firmly holding one end after the loss of early wickets. The two southpaws remained unbeaten to lead the side to their second consecutive win in the tournament, also taking them to the top of points table.