The 44th match of the IPL 2023 saw Gujarat Titans (GT) hosting the Delhi Capitals (DC) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, on May 2. GT came into the game as table toppers, while DC was at the bottom of the points table.
David Warner of DC won the toss and chose to bat first on the Ahmedabad track. Mitchell Marsh missed the encounter due to illness and Rilee Russouw replaced him in the DC XI, while Khaleel Ahmed made his return to the team.
Mohammad Shami’s 4/11 rattled Delhi's top-order and they were reduced to 23/5 at one stage. Then Akshar Patel (27) and Aman Khan (51) added 50 runs for the 6th wicket and then Aman added a further 53 runs for the 7th wicket with Ripal Patel (23) as DC posted a final score of 130/8.
Well, Gujarat’s chase didn’t start well also, as they were reduced to 32/4 after Wriddhiman Saha, and Shubman Gill. Vijay Shankar and David Miller all fell for single-digit score with Miller falling for a duck.
Hardik Pandya anchored one end and brought GT back with Abhinav Manohar making 26 and then when quick runs were needed, Rahul Tewatia smoked 20 off 7 balls. But in the end, the 12 runs to get in the last 6 balls proved to be a tough ask as Hardik Pandya was off-strike for the last four balls.
Ishant Sharma bowled brilliantly and dismissed Tewatia and kept Rashid Khan silent as GT finished on 125/6 and lost the game by 5 runs.
Rishabh Pant, the regular DC captain, was ecstatic after the win and lauded the team and Ishant Sharma in a story posted on his Instagram account saying "Good job guys".
Not much changed on the IPL 2023 points table as GT remain on the top with 6 wins from 9 games and 12 points, while DC remain in 10th spot with 6 points from 9 games.
The cricket fraternity was all praise for the performance of the DC team and lauded them on Twitter.
Here are the tweets:
