Ishant Sharma, who has frequently been discounted as a T20 bowler, held his nerves to excuse Tewatia and safeguard 11 runs in the last over to direct DC to success.
With a score of “180-190,” it was described as a “pretty flat and good surface” by Nick Knight. Who would have thought that the Ahmedabad track would change its appearance?
Before huffing and puffing their way to 130 against Gujarat Titans, Delhi Capitals were injured for 23 of the game’s 5 innings.
The defending champions were mistaken, as were the majority if not all of the other teams. They caused a comparative beginning before captain Hardik Pandya and Abhinav Manohar restored the innings, yet neglected to raise the stakes.
Rahul Tewatia did what he does best: smoked three straight sixes off Anirch Nortje just as Delhi seemed certain to win.
However, dissimilar to the standard content for him, he neglected to polish it off and there arose another legend.
Ishant Sharma, who was frequently dismissed as a T20 bowler. Fought back to dismiss Tewatia and defend 11 runs in the final over to lead DC to an unthinkable victory.
Delhi was the firm top choice when Gujarat required 33 runs off the last 12 balls. The story in the match leaned toward Delhi. However, they were facing a group that once pursued 12 off 2 and the one who had pulled it off was still in the center.
Nortje has established himself as a specialist in death-overs. He bowled superbly with the old ball and bowled precise yorkers in one of Delhi’s matches this season.
The system continued as before on Tuesday. Hardik oversaw just three runs in the initial three balls prior to giving the strike back to Tewatia and that paid off for Gujarat.
The iceman hit the fourth ball, a low full toss. Over deep square leg for the first six, then hit the yorker over long-on for the second six, and Tewatia shuffled and slogged it over cow corner for the third maximum in a row.
Once more, the Ahmedabad crowd was alive. For GT, there was hope. The equation was now 12 divided by 6. However, to whom did Delhi turn? An accomplished Ishant.
Tewatia was put on strike by Hardik, who scored three runs off the first two balls. However, GT’s gamble did not pay off this time.
Ishant finally hit a wide yorker that was a dot ball. Accomplishing what Nortje had failed to do with the previous Yorker.
Ishant went wide once more, but he cleverly dished out a length ball that slowed it down. Tewatia shuffled across and tried to slam it over mid-off, but the fielder found him and caught him.
Ishant stopped DC from scoring more than three runs in the final two balls. But Rashid Khan has shown that he can win games with sixes off his signature snake shot. It was a win that was unthinkable by many measures.
But it was their goal, second in their awful season thus far, and third. Going up against the defending champions and current table toppers.
Well, Delhi’s wild celebrations were summed up by Ricky Ponting’s sudden rise to hug his teammates while Tewatia was in tears.