Delhi Capitals 224 for 4 (Pant 88*, Axar 66, Warrier 3-15) beat Gujarat Titans 220 for 8 (Sai Sudharsan 65, Miller 55, Salam 3-44) by four runs
In a thrilling finish at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Rashid Khan nearly took Gujarat Titans home in pursuit of 225 against Delhi Capitals. But Mukesh Kumar held his nerve to defend 19 off the last over as Delhi Capitals completed a thrilling four-run victory.
Sudharsan, Miller make it a contest
Shubman Gill fell early to Anrich Nortje in the chase, for the fourth time in seven innings, but that did not slow Titans down. Wriddhiman Saha struck 30 in his first 12 balls by expertly clearing the infield while Sudharsan made full use of an early reprieve off Rasikh Salam’s bowling to race off the blocks. They did not let Nortje or Khaleel Ahmed settle and collected 67 in the powerplay.
The spinners then bogged down Saha, and Kuldeep Yadav dismissed him for 35 in 29 balls. But Sudharsan dominated through the middle overs, hitting both seamers and spinners through the offside with cuts both in front and behind square. He also came down the ground to race to 69 in 35 balls before falling to Salam in an attempt to clear long off.
With Azmatullah Omarzai, Shahrukh Khan and Rahul Tewatia all falling for single-digit scores around Sudharsan’s dismissal, Titans appeared to lose steam needing 73 in 24 balls. However, Miller mauled Nortje for three sixes and a four in a 24-run 17th over to give Titans hope and complete his own half-century off 21 balls.
Mukesh then dismissed Miller in the 18th over and at the time it seemed Capitals had done enough. But Salam leaked 18 runs in the 19th over to make it a shootout between Rashid and Mukesh.
Mukesh conceded two fours off the first two balls and then another six off the penultimate delivery but held his nerve in the final delivery to get a ball to land so full that Rashid could not find that elusive boundary or six.
Full report to follow
Sreshth Shah is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @sreshthx
Source: ESPN Crickinfo