High-scoring games with 400-plus runs scored and battles coming down to the wire have been the norm in IPL 2024, so it was no surprise that the Delhi Capitals versus Gujarat Titans showdown at the Arun Jaitley Stadium continued the pattern. The game on Wednesday marked the tenth time this tournament has had a 400-plus aggregate. And in this match, both sides’ left-handers provided the most amusement.
The spin takedown
Axar Patel had come in at No.3 for only the second time in 108 innings in the IPL. A scoring rate of seven an over at the end of seven overs wasn’t the brightest of starts for DC, who had already lost three wickets inside the powerplay. Axar struck just one four in the first 11 balls he faced and managed only 9 runs off his first 15 balls. His promotion didn’t seem logical at that point but the meaning behind it unfolded as the innings progressed.
Axar’s innings lasted until the end of the 17th over, by which time he faced 43 deliveries. Of those, 25 were from the Afghanistan spin duo of Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad as Axar expertly negated their threat and ensured quick runs too. Rishabh Pant was scoring off them as well, getting 24 off 17 – with two fours and a six off the wrist spin pair. But Axar’s role in their takedown was more prominent as he took 46 runs off them in 25 deliveries and contributed 62 off only 36 in the 113-run fourth wicket stand with Pant.
“My role was to take on the spinners. The talk with Rishabh was that we should take the partnership as deep as possible and aim for a good finish. It was a sticky wicket, some balls were skidding and some were slow,” said Axar in his chat with the broadcasters during the innings break. “The mindset is very important, you can’t think about playing off a bowler, and attack another. The approach was to attack if it was in our area, if not then take the singles and twos and rotate the strike. We kept an attacking mindset.”
The death overs marauding
Axar also believed that 170-180 would have been a nice score as the fourth wicket combination went about establishing a foundation for the squad. However, it became 224 courtesy to Pant’s remarkable innings, resulting in a few embarrassing records for Mohit Sharma.
Pant had scored 34 off 26 by the conclusion of the 15th over, but he had already measured up Mohit after hitting two boundaries off him in the 12th. In the 16th over, Pant hit two sixes off the pacer. His fifty came in Mohit’s over, when he hit his third six against him.
But the most damage was done in the final over, when the DC skipper smashed four sixes and a four off Mohit, who finished with 0-73, the most expensive statistics in the IPL. Mohit conceded 31 runs in the 20th over, making it the equal third-most expensive final over in IPL history. It was also the eighth time Mohit went for 50 or more runs in an IPL game, the most by any bowler.
Pant scored more than 70 percent of his runs off Mohit. Pant was responsible for over 85 percent of Mohit’s runs conceded.
Left-wary GT left weary
Towards the end stage of the first innings, there was also a matchup-based calculation that went awry for the Titans. R Sai Kishore, who bagged four wickets in their last game, wasn’t brought on to bowl for the first 18 overs. With two left-handers in the middle for more than 11 overs, GT felt it wouldn’t be an ideal matchup using the left-arm finger spinner. He was, however, brought on for the 19th over, and that too when the right-handed Tristan Stubbs would first take strike.
But the move backfired spectacularly. Sai Kishore was clubbed for two sixes and two fours by Stubbs before Pant unleashed mayhem in the final over. They finished with an unbroken 67-run stand in just 18 deliveries. Their run-rate of 22.33 made it the third best scoring rate for a fifty-plus stand in the IPL.
GT’s left-handed fighters
It was also the left-handed ensemble that got Gujarat Titans within striking distance of DC’s total, only to fall short off the final ball. The two fours and the six that Rashid scored off Mukesh Kumar in the last over brought it down to 5. But before that, Sai Kishore hit two maximums off Rasikh Salam in the 19th to keep them in the hunt. Speaking of, David Miller’s 23-ball 55 was crucial in the Titans still having a chance. And much earlier, it was Sai Sudharsan’s 39-ball 65 that kept them going in the chase.
Kuldeep Yadav’s spell (2 for 29 off 4 overs), Axar’s 1-28 to go with three catches, Pant’s sharp takes behind the stumps – DC had the left-handedness going in their second innings too. And at the end of it, they left GT behind them on the points table.
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