Skipper Hardik Pandya’s unbeaten fifty (59 not out) and Mohammed Shami’s four-fer (4-11) went in vain as Delhi Capitals beat Gujarat Titans by five runs in Match No. 44 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 at Narendra Modi Stadium, here on Tuesday.

Seasoned pacer Shami’s sensational four-fer helped Gujarat Titans restrict Delhi Capitals to 130/8 in 20 overs despite a fighting fifty from Aman Hakim Khan (51 off 44). Apart from Shami, Mohit Sharma (2-33) and Rashid Khan (1-28) were the other wicket-takers for Titans while Axar Patel (27 off 30) and Ripal Patel (23 off 13) were the other main contributors with the bat after Aman.

Chasing a small total, Delhi Capitals also had a poor start as they lost three wickets inside the Power-play and scored just 31 runs. It was Khaleel Ahmed, who drew first blood for Delhi Capitals by getting Wriddhiman Saha caught behind for a duck in the last delivery of the very first over of the innings.

Skipper Hardik Pandya walked into the middle to give company to Shubman Gill, who started well by hitting a boundary off Ishant Sharma. However, Anrich Nortje was introduced in the attack soon and he dismissed Gill, who timed the ball straight to the cover fielder.

Vijay Shankar has been in good form this season and Gujarat had high hopes from him but Ishant bowled a brilliant knuckleball to get rid of the Tamil Nadu batter, leaving Titans in a precarious position at 26-3 after 4.6 overs.

Defending champions Gujarat needed a partnership to rebuild their innings but new man David Miller tried to play a cute paddle sweep off Kuldeep Yadav but was bowled, adding misery to his team’s position.

Gujarat Titans were 32-4 when Miller got out and Hardik was watching his batting partners going back to the pavilion one after another. The skipper needed some support and it came from Abhinav Manohar.

The duo of Hardik and Abhinav played cautiously against spin twins Kuldeep and Axar Patel, who were bowling nicely to keep things in control for Delhi. After bowling a few overs of spin, Warner went back to his pacers and they also bowled well barring giving a few boundaries here and there as the required run rate was going up with each passing over.

Hardik and Abhinav continued to grind runs out while Warner was bringing in the bowling changes in search of breakthroughs and not letting the batters settle down as Gujarat Titans were 71/4 after 14 overs.

With the required run rate increasingly sharp, Pandya decided to free his arms and got a few boundaries to get his fifty in 44 balls but Abhinav was not able to find boundaries and his struggle was ended by Khaleel Ahmed in the first ball of the 18th over. Khaleel executed his slower ones and yorkers to perfection and gave just four runs in his over, making things tougher for Gujarat.

Anrich Nortje came to bowl the 19th over with Gujarat needing 33 runs in 12 balls. The pacer conceded just three runs in the first three balls but Tewatia had other plans and he hit Nortje for three consecutive sixes, to bring the equation in Gujarat’s favour.

With 12 runs needed of 6 balls for Gujarat to win, experienced Ishant had the big task in hand but he held his nerve, dismissed Tewatia and gave just 5 runs to win it for Delhi Capitals.

Brief scores:

Delhi Capitals 130/8 in 20 overs (Aman Hakim Khan 51, Axar Patel 27; Md Shami 4-11, Mohit Sharma 2-33) beat Gujarat Titans 125-6 in 20 overs (Hardik Pandya 59 not out, Abhinav Manohar 26; Ishant Sharma 2-23, Khaleel Ahmed 2-24) by 5 runs.