Pant-Axar fifties & Rasikh’s three-fer help DC edge GT by four runs

Captain Rishabh Pant enthralled the home crowd by slamming an unbeaten 88 off 43 balls while Axar Patel hit a 43ball 66 and impact player Rasikh Salam picked a threefer as Delhi Capitals edged Gujarat Titans by four runs in a thrilling runfest to secure their fourth win of the tournament at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on WednesdayAfter Pant and Axar fifties along with Tristan Stubbsrsquo unbeaten 26 lift DC to a mammoth 2244 GT were quick in their runscoring thanks to 65 from B Sai Sudarshan followed by 55 from David Miller But DC triumphed in the end to get those crucial two points in a proper runfestGT had the upper hand after electing to bowl first thanks to Sandeep Warrierrsquos triple strikes in powerplay and leave DC in trouble But Pant and Axar took their time before launching a stunning onslaught against spinners to form a decisive 113run partnership for the fourth wicketAxar made his promotion to number three count by hitting five fours and four sixes in his eyecatchy knock at a strikerate of 15349 Pant after being scratchy in his 44 against Sunrisers Hyderabad was at his magnificent best in hitting eight sixes and five fours at a strikerate of 2046Also ReadSkipper Gaikwad feels dew took CSK spinners out of gameThe duo being phenomenal with the bat meant GT spinners were rendered ineffective in middle overs and the visitorsrsquo bowlers were promptly taken for cleaners in the death overs Moreover Warrier didnrsquot bowl out his final over as DC took 97 runs in their final five oversPrithvi Shaw and Jake FraserMcGurk hit six delightful boundaries as DC reached 340 in three overs But Warrier bounced back in the fourth over after conceding 12 runs in his opening overThe fastbowler first had FraserMcGurk flicking off the bottom edge to deep square leg followed by getting Shaw to mistime a pull with Noor Ahmad running in from deep square leg to take a diving catch Warrier got his third powerplay wicket when Shai Hope sliced away from his body and was caught at backward point as DC ended the sixover phase with 443Axar got a move on by crashing a drive off Omarzai before nailing a slogsweep for six on a Rashid Khan googly He and Pant took a pulled four each off Rashidrsquos short balls followed by the latter slogsweeping Noor Ahmad for a four and six eachAxar continued to thrive against spinners ndash driving and cutting with ease for his boundaries while Pant feasted on Mohit Sharmarsquos short balls by pulling and slicing to take a brace of fours Axar lofted a drive off Shahrukh Khan for six before reaching his fifty in 37 balls with a pulled four off RashidPant was delightful in the 16th over against Mohit whipping off his pads and thumping a slower ball over longoff for a brace of sixes before bringing up the century of the fourthwicket stand Axar then hammered Noor for backtoback sixes in the 17th over before holing out to longon to fall for a 43ball 66Pant got his fifty in 34 balls by lofting a fulltoss from Mohit over longon for six and was met with a grand applause from the crowd GT brought in R Sai Kishorersquos leftarm spin in the 19th over to counter righthanded Tristan StubbsBut the batter creamed the drives twice in the gap between extracover and longoff followed by clubbing the spinner for two mammoth sixes over longon in the 22run over In the last over Pant managed to clear longon for six and sliced a four despite losing balance against Mohit He cut loose with his pull loft and swivel fetching him maximums on last three balls of the innings to take 31 runs off the final overIn chasing 225 Shubman Gill fell early in his 100th IPL game after mistiming the loft to midon off Anrich Nortje Wriddhiman Saha and Sudharsan hit ten boundaries between themselves in the remainder of powerplay including taking 17 runs off Khaleel Ahmed in the third overSudarshan had some luck on his side after being dropped on 17 by Axar at midon on Rasikhrsquos bowling as GT ended powerplay at 671 Sudarshan was neat in cutting and glancing Axar for consecutive fours But Kuldeep Yadav struck as Saha slashed hard and Axar jumped in the nick of time to pluck the catch out of thin airSudarshan completed his fifty in 29 balls but saw GT go from 941 to 983 as Axar had Omarzai caught by FraserMcGurk rushing in and diving forward from deep midwicket to complete a sensational catch Sudarshan and Miller would hit a boundary each before the former holed out to longoff against RasikhRasikh then took out Shahrukh Khan as Pant took a sharp catch after standing up to the stumps followed by him taking Rahul Tewatiarsquos catch on Kuldeeprsquos last ball With 73 runs needed off 24 balls Miller feasted on Nortjersquos short and full balls by hitting a four and three sixes before reaching his fifty in 21 balls with a brace as 24 runs came off the 17th overAfter Rashid was dropped by Abishek Porel on first ball of the 18th over Miller glanced Mukesh for four before clipping straight to deep backward square leg and fall for a 23ball 55 With 37 runs needed off 12 balls Rashid worked Rasikh for a boundary and Stubbs even saved a six of him followed by Kishore keeping match alive with consecutive sixes before being castled by the pacerThe equation came down to 19 runs in the final over and Rashid began by whipping Mukesh for a four in the gap between longon and midwicket When the pacer pitched it wide Rashid was quick to slash over extra cover for a boundaryAfter two dot balls Rashid lofted a six over longoff With three runs needed off the last ball Rashid hit off a yorker but the ball went one bounce to longoff as DC held their nerve to get a tight winBrief Scores Delhi Capitals 2244 in 20 overs Rishabh Pant 88 not out Axar Patel 66 Sandeep Warrier 315 beat Gujarat Titans 2208 in 20 overs B Sai Sudharsan 65 David Miller 55 Rasikh Salam 344 Kuldeep Yadav 229 by four runsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability 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