Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill made light of a seemingly imposing 200-run target to take the Gujarat Titans to a stunning 10-wicket victory over the Delhi Capitals in their Tata IPL clash at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Sunday night. In the process they took their team to the top of the table and into the playoffs.
Earlier, Delhi had made what seemed to be a challenging 199 for three in their innings after they had been asked to bat by their opponents. A magnificent unbeaten century from KL Rahul had filled Delhi and their noisy, dancing supporters with confidence that they could achieve a much-needed victory to improve their own chances of reaching the playoffs.
Sudharsan and Gill begged to disagree. The pair plundered 43 off the first three overs and, though temporarily pegged back by the halfway mark (82 without loss), they drew another breath and once again raised the momentum of the innings to achieve victory with an over to spare with Sudharsan clubbing the winning six high over long-on. Their heavyweight No 3, Jos Buttler, never needed to face a ball.
It was remarkable how easy the pair made their achievement look. Gill, who allowed Sundharsan to make the early running, actually scored at a faster rate than his partner although he finished just short of his century. The right-handed skipper struck seven sixes and just three fours in his 53-ball innings that realised 93. Sudharsan struck his second IPL hundred, 108, in 61 balls including 12 fours and four sixes. The pair barely raised a sweat, playing conventional, relatively risk-free strokes on a wonderful surface for batting at a small ground with a lightning outfield.
Statistically, it was the seventh time in this IPL that the pair had gone past the 50 mark. It was Gill’s sixth 50 and Sundharsan has also scored five half-centuries to add to tonight’s hundred.
The IPL, which was stalled for eight days after cross-border tensions between India and Pakistan, resumed on Saturday.
Earlier, Rahul made a good case for the innings of the day. Elegant and deceptively powerful, he struck a series of remarkable shots, classical off- and straight drives off the front and back foot, relying on perfect timing. He greeted the returning Kagiso Rabada’s first over with some delicious strokes, a hook for six, a square cut for four and then, the best of them all, an off-drive for six on the up that travelled more than 80 metres.
The South African fast bowler, who hadn’t played since the end of March, was blitzed for 34 in just two overs, largely by Rahul, and retired wounded to the boundary.
Rahul and Abishek Porel added 90 for the second wicket after the early loss of Faf du Plessis, caught at mid-on after struggling to get going. Rahul batted through the innings, striking 14 fours in his unbeaten 112. He received good support from Axar Patel (25 in 16 balls) and Tristan Stubbs (21* in 10 balls) as Delhi almost reached the 200 mark.
This total, instead of pushing their opponents to the brink, was reached with an almost casual mastery by two batters at the height of their powers.
GUJARAT TITANS: Shubman Gill (capt), Sherfane Rutherford, Jos Buttler (wk), Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Arshad Khan, R Sai Kishore, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
DELHI CAPITALS: Faf du Plessis, Abhishek Porel, Sameer Rizvi, KL Rahul (wk), Axar Patel (capt), Tristan Stubbs, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, T Natarajan, Kuldeep Yadav, Mustafizur Rahman
