Skipper David Warner’s cautious 37 and Axar Patel’s belligerent 36 helped Delhi Capitals post competitive 162 for eight against defending champion Gujarat Titans In their second Tata IPL League fixture at Arun Jaitely Stadium here on Tuesday evening.
Titans had match well under control till the 15th over with Delhi Capitals were struggling at 126 for five but in the last five over thanks to Axar Patel who hit 36 off 22 balls which included three sixes and two boundaries, the hosts took their total to past 160.
Gujarat Titans captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and opted to field. The defending champions included David Miller, who arrived here yesterday in their playing eleven in place of injured Ken Williamson and Sai Sudharsan dropping Vijay Shankar.
Delhi Capitals also bolstered their pace attack by including South African Anrich Nortje Wicket Keeper Abishek Porel made his debut for the hosts along with Aman Khan.They replaced two left-arm seamers Khaleel Ahmed and Chetan Sakariya .
The hosts made an aggressive start as the opening pair of David Warner and Prithvi Shaw put up 29 runs in 2,4 overs before Mohd Shammi struck. The veteran pacer removed Shaw (7, 5b ,1×4)as the opener trying for a big hit miscued he shot an was caught by Alzaari Joseph.
Eight runs and ten balls later Shami struck again when he clean bowled Mitchel Marsh (4) and Delhi Capitals were reduced to 37 for 2. At that stage Shami figures read 3-0-29-2.
Delhi batters looked tentative and bit uneasy against Titans pace Machinery on a track which had a bit of Seam movement, uneven bounce, inconsistent pace..
Still Delhi did well in power play scoring 50 for 2 . David Warner after initial hesitation looked like settling down before young West Indian fast bowler Alzarri Joseph struck.he clean bowled the opener (37,32 b,7×4) and in the process also rened the 30 run third wicket partnership. Joseph struck again off the next balkl when he had Rilee Rossouw caught by Rahul Tewatia and had Delhi reeling at 67 for 4 in 8.3 overs
Abishekh Porel and Sarfaraz added 34 runs but spinner Rashid Khan who came into attack in the 13th iover struck of his second ball when he clean bowled Porel 920.11 b,2×6)
It was left to Axar patel to come to the rescue of his side once again and he did it by belting three huge sixes in his 22 ball stay to take the score well past 160
For Titans Shami and Rashid Khan took three wickets each conceding 41 and 31 runs respectively. Joseph claimed otherb two wickets giving away 29 runs.