Brilliant Rashid Khan leads GT to a sensational win over DC in a thrilling last-ball finish
GT – 210/4 (Shubman Gill 70 off 45) beat DC – 209/8 (KL Rahul 92 off 52, Rashid Khan 17/3) by 1 run
Man of the Match: Rashid Khan
Steady batting team with some issues in the middle/lower-middle order and a decent bowling attack. This description would fit either of the two teams that met each other on Wednesday night for the 14th match of IPL 2026 at Delhi. But while Delhi Capitals (DC) has won both of its matches in the ongoing tournament, Gujarat Titans (GT) has been on a five-match losing streak, including last year’s IPL.
Axar Patel, the DC captain, won the toss and elected to field first on a good batting surface. Famous for their risk-averse approach and as the team that hits more fours than sixes, GT got off the block at a rather rapid pace, mainly due to an adventurous Jos Buttler. Shubman Gill held the innings together, and Washington Sundar finished off for what looked like a par score on this surface. In return, KL Rahul and David Miller gave GT a mighty scare to lose by only 1 run.
Jos Buttler finds his mojo.
The opening two overs started conventionally enough, with Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan punishing the bad balls and not trying anything fancy. DC bowler Mukesh Kumar was bowling a tight length and line and induced an inside edge to bowl inform batsman Sai Sudharsan. Buttler has been in wretched form all through this year’s T20 World Cup, and with new, enterprising players coming into the English team, it did look that his time was up. But he had a couple of decent knocks this IPL, and it looked like the lost form might be coming back after all. He was watchful for the first three balls, and once he understood that there were no demons on the surface, he started unleashing his stroke play. The fourth ball from Mukesh was hit high above long on for a six. Axar Patel got the same treatment next over as a wide ball was dispatched to the extra cover boundary and a six over long on. It was the next over from Mukesh Kumar, who was bowling a predictable line and length, that Buttler took full toll. Three sixes, the first ball was scooped over fine leg, the next one a length ball was hammered high over long on and on the fifth ball was a slow, wide length ball hit over extra cover. The over went for 23 runs, and GT were up and running.
Buttler falls, and the calm before the storm.
The DC bowlers tried manfully to restrict the flow of runs, and the brilliant Ngidi, Axar Patel, Natrajan and Kuldeep managed to bowl some quiet overs, with Kuldeep managing to deceive Buttler (52 off 27 balls) with a fast, shorter delivery that stayed low. Among all this mayhem, Gill was merely a spectator, facing only 4 balls in the 60-run partnership. Washington Sundar was promoted up the order to maintain the left-right combination, and he kept the scoreboard ticking. The initial onslaught by Buttler meant that GT were always on their way to a good total. But once Vipraj Nigam was introduced, the GT batters decided to further up the ante. Nigam started by bowling short, one of them also a no-ball, and Washington pulled both of them at long on for four. The free hit was then deposited over deep midwicket for a six. Nigam then tried to overcompensate and bowled a full toss to Gill, and it was hit straight over the bowler’s head for a six. The over had gone for 23 runs, and GT were 133/2 in 12 overs.
Ngidi ensures GT does not post an impossible target.
With 8 wickets in hand, GT could have well been expected to take the match beyond DC. But out of the remaining overs, 2 belonged to Ngidi, who was brilliant yet again. None of the batsmen could read his dipping yorker properly, and he stopped the leakage of runs. Gill, who had negotiated Kuldeep successfully and hit him for four sixes, was finally foxed by a Ngidi pace off-ball and spooned a catch to mid-off for a well-made and responsible knock of 70 off 45 balls. Sundar got out in the final over, bowled by Mukesh for 55 off 32 balls, to ensure that GT reached a respectable score of 210.
DC openers start steadily.
KL Rahul and Nissanka saw to it that they were never too far away from the required run rate and gradually picked up the pace. It was Nissanka who took the early initiative and kept the runs flowing while Rahul was more subdued initially. Siraj started bowling full in order to find swing and got driven by Nissanka for three boundaries in the opening over. The next three overs were relatively calm, though Rabada bowled a bizarre fourth over where he seemed to be trying to bowl at full speed around the 147-148 kmph mark and kept on missing his line and length. Three were full tosses, with one surprising Rahul, who lobbed the ball up for it to fall safely between fielders. The second full toss was hit over deep square leg for a six. At the end, Rabada escaped with only 9 runs conceded in that over. A miserly over from Rashid Khan later came the moment that turbocharged the DC innings.
Ashok goes for plenty.
With both batsmen comfortable, it was time to pick up speed in the last over of the power play. Ashok Sharma, with his high pace, may not have been the correct choice for that over, as the fielding restrictions meant that even balls that were mishit had a good chance of going to the boundary. With that in mind, both the batsmen started swinging merrily. First was a mishit from Rahul that went over the point fielder for a boundary, and then Nissanka lined up the bowler and went 4,6,4,4 for a total of 23 runs in the over. In the meantime, Prasidh had bowled a decent seventh over and came back for the ninth. He bowled a pacy, hard length ball, which Nissanka tried to hit over mid off and hit straight to the fielder due to the high bounce the bowler generates.
In between all this, Rahul was playing the innings that Gill had played for GT, and was scoring at around 130 strike rate. Finding his Karnataka teammate Prasidh Krishna at the other end, he decided to have a go at it and scored 20 runs in the next 4 balls with the help of two sixes and two fours in that over to bring the required run rate to 10.36 in 11 overs with 9 wickets remaining.
Rashid shines.
Rashid Khan had already had a couple of quiet overs, but wickets were required. Finding new batsman Nitish Rana at the striker’s end, he started weaving his magic. Rana was having difficulty deciphering Rashid’s variation. Having escaped a close lbw shout trying to reverse sweep, Ultra-Edge showing a spike as the ball came near the glove, he got a boundary by pulling a short ball. Then, again trying to be aggressive, he top-edged, and Sai Sudharsan caught a brilliant running catch. The very next ball, Rashid castled Sameer Rizvi with a ripping googly. David Miller was the next man in but had to retire hurt due to a hand injury he had sustained while diving on the field earlier. Rashid again got the new man, Axar Patel, swinging to a googly, and the ball lobbed to extra cover, where Glenn Phillips took a dazzling diving catch. It was a very good day on the field for the GT team as Tristan Stubbs was run out by a Sai Sudharsan direct hit. Siraj then came back to have Rahul caught behind with a wide full ball.
Miller comes to the rescue, almost.
With 45 required off 18, only 9 runs were conceded in the 18th over, bowled by Rabada. The equation got more difficult, and, injured hand or not, David Miller decided to get into beast mode. The first ball by Siraj was short, and Miller pulled it over deep midwicket for a six. The next one was full and wide, and it was smashed to extra cover, just short of the boundary cushions for a 4. The third was full around the middle, and Miller hit a no-look six straight over long. Nigam, his batting partner at the other end, also got a boundary over the wicketkeeper’s head, and the equation became 13 off 6 balls. Gill had to turn to Prasidh, who started with a slot ball, and Nigam hit another boundary before perishing next ball to a slower short ball. Kuldeep was the next man in and managed to give strike back to Miller, who had to get 8 runs off 3 balls. The next ball was again on a length, and Miller hit such a monstrous six over long off that it must have deflated everyone in the Gujrat camp. He could have easily taken a single off the fifth ball of the over and ensured at least a Super Over, but refused and sent Kuldeep back, opting to win the match in the last ball. Last ball, Prasidh bowled a slower short ball, which Miller missed completely, and Kuldeep was run out by a Buttler direct hit trying to steal a bye. More drama was to follow as DC reviewed for a wide for height, but it was more in hope than anything else and was deemed not to be a wide by the third umpire. David Miller looked distraught after yet again having to be at the wrong end of a dramatic finish. The refused single, in hindsight, could be seen as an error in judgment. Cricket, or any sport, for that matter, can truly be cruel. GT would certainly savour their first win this season with a one-run victory.