AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Titans (GT) ace bowler Mohammed Shami displayed sensational form with the ball as he picked up 4 wickets, giving away only 11 runs in the process against Delhi Capitals (DC).
During the mid-innings break, when he was asked if he wanted to bowl more, Shami came up with a witty reply. “Nahi nahi, petrol khatam ho chuka tha (I have given it my all and bowled four on the trot),” said Shami after becoming the Purple Cap holder.
With his impressive performance, Shami bagged the Man of the Match award, but it wasn’t enough to seal the game for the title defenders.
GT had the worst possible start while chasing 131 as they ended up losing three crucial wickets of Wriddhiman Saha, Shubman Gill and Vijay Shankar in the powerplay. Skipper Hardik Pandya tried to pull GT back into the game, but it wasn’t enough as they kept losing wickets at the other end at regular intervals.
“I felt we should have chased this. The mistake was losing wickets at regular intervals, we needed partnerships and they came too late for us. However, plenty of games left. Such things happen”, Shami said after the match.
Chasing 131, Gujarat Titans were dealt with an early blow as Wriddhiman Saha was caught behind off Khaleel who bowled a fantastic wicket maiden. Khaleel beat Saha’s outside edge multiple times before finally getting him to edge one to the keeper via terrific swing bowling.
Hardik Pandya went on the counter-attack in the third over from Khaleel, thumping three fours, but GT found themselves two down in the next over as Anrich Nortje had Gill (6 off 7) caught at covers off an uppish drive. Ishant Sharma then produced a beautiful knuckleball to the castle the in-form Vijay Shankar and reduce GT to 26/3.
GT stuttered to 31/3 at the end of the Powerplay. Kuldeep Yadav came into the attack and didn’t take time to strike as he cleaned up David Miller (0 off 3) who shuffled across for a sweep, but missed it completely.
Pandya and Abhinav Manohar started the rebuilding process, but DC kept things largely tight as the required run rate crept over 10 per over with five overs to go. Hardik brought up the 50-run stand with a powerful pull for a four off Nortje. The skipper then brought up his half-century off 44 balls. Kuldeep bowled another excellent over, giving just five to complete an excellent spell of 4-0-15-1.
With 37 needed off 18, Khaleel returned and struck with the first ball to remove Manohar (26 off 33), who was caught at long-on. Khaleel completed an excellent over to give away just four as the equation read 33 needed off 12 balls.
Nortje started off the penultimate over well, nailing his yorkers and giving away just three off the first three balls. But he missed his marker as Rahul Tewatia came into his own to swing the next three balls for three sixes in a row to bring the equation down to 12 needed off the last over.
Warner handed the ball to Ishant for the final over and the experienced veteran answered his captain’s call with a fantastic over. Ishant started off brilliantly and gave away just three off the first three balls and then got Tewatia (20 off 7), caught at extra cover, as the equation came to 9 needed off 2 balls. Rashid Khan smashed the next one to cover the point where Rossouw stopped it.
With 7 needed off the last ball, Ishant bowled a full toss which Rashid sliced over backward point for just two as the DC players erupted in wild celebrations. (ANI)