Welcome to Sportstar‘s LIVE coverage of the IPL 2022 match between GT and DC at the MCA Stadium, Pune. This is Santadeep Dey bringing you all the action as it unfolds at the venue.

GT vs DC LIVE COMMENTARY

Gujarat Titans Innings

GT in 20 overs: A mishit from Miller throws the strike back to Tewatia. Finally, Delhi gets it right. Tewatia looks for another lofted drive but this dips safely into Shardul’s palms at the edge of the ring. Abhinav slashes hard but only manages to pass the strike on to Miller with a single.

GT 167/4 in 19 overs: Shardul bowls a wide yorker that Tewatia digs out to pick a single. Lalit spills a dolly at deep extra cover. Tewatia has been gifted a life. He celebrates the occasion with a cracking maximum off the next ball.

GT 155/4 in 18 overs: Gill holes out to Axar at deep midwicket. Doesn’t get much behind the shot and he knew his fate was sealed as soon as the ball left the bat. Tewatia comes to the crease. Miller guides one just past Mustafizur at third man. Khaleel isn’t happy with the effort. Excellent placement from Tewatia as he rides on top of the bounce to pull it in front of square.

GT 145/3 in 17 overs: Mustafizur is back. Gill and Miller keep the scoreboard ticking, not taking any undue risks against the Bangladesh pacer.

GT 136/3 in 16 overs: Pant and Axar have a lengthy discussion and decide against the review as the ball crashes into Gill’s boots. Gill hammers a length ball 83m deep into the stands. Another six! Gill is on fire… Straight over Axar’s head. Time for the strategic timeout.

GT 120/3 in 15 overs: Gill picks Kuldeep’s wrong’un and goes downtown! Six. Mandeep puts in a desperate dive at sweeper cover but in vain as Gill picks up another boundary.

GT 109/3 in 14 overs: Gujarat enters triple digits with a Gill four. He has got all the trick up his sleeves; watches the ball till the very end to heave across the line to work it towards long-leg. Bobble… and taken. Powell does well to hold on to the catch as Hardik departs for 31.

GT 98/2 in 13 overs: Not a good start to the over for Kuldeep as he strays down leg. Gill uses the opportunity to sweep it down towards long-leg. The fifty-run stands comes up off 38 balls. Gill gets to his half-century — his 11th in IPL — as well off 32 deliveries.

GT 89/2 in 12 overs: Prithvi does an excellent job near the rope, diving across to save two runs for his team. Hardik splits extra cover and long-off to pick up another boundary. Three balls later, Shubman decides to explore the same area. Four more.

GT 75/2 in 11 overs: Hardik gets on top of the bounce to slash this across towards sweeper cover for four.

GT 66/2 in 10 overs: After Gujarat goes 16 balls without hitting a boundary, Hardik registers one. Didn’t time the pull well, but it was enough to get the ball down to the fence. Khaleel uses the left-hander’s angle to good effect as he flummoxes Hardik with a seam-up delivery that kept low.

GT 58/2 in 9 overs: A leg slip now in place for Kuldeep. Bowls it quick and flat through the air. Just a single off the first three balls. Good running between the wickets as Gill flicks this through leg side. One more to deep square leg and Gill will retain strike.

GT 53/2 in 8 overs: Axar starts off with four dot balls coming round the wicket to Hardik. He finally dabs one to short third man for a single. Gill takes one more to end the over and keep strike.

Kuldeep Yadav celebrates the wicket of Vijay Shankar of Gujarat Titans.   –  SPORTZPICS

GT 51/2 in 7 overs: OUT! Kuldeep is in and strikes first ball. Shankar goes for the sweep and misses and straight through the gate. Vijay Shankar b Kuldeep Yadav 13(20b 1×4 0x6). Captain Hardik is in. He gets an inside edge off the first ball that trickles to point. FOUR! Outside edge again and this runs away behind the keeper. Slip and gully in place now. Hardik presses forward and drives through mid on for one. Gill sweeps to end the over with a couple.

GT 44/1 in 6 overs: Mustafizur returns. Over the wicket to Gill. He pushes to mid off for a quick single. Just four runs off the first four balls. Shankar mistimes a flick and then gets one off the splice off the bat again trying to pull in front of square. Length outside leg and Shankar misses trying to tuck it off his hips.

GT 38/1 in 5 overs: Axar to bowl in the PowerPlay. Six! Gill sweeps this one over the rope behind square leg for his 50th six in T20 cricket. Got his knee down in perfect sync with the pitch of the delivery and got it right of the middle of the willlow. Single for him next ball as Axar shortens his length. Shankar thumps down the ground for a couple but it doesn’t go off the middle, rather goes off the splice. Two dots to end the over.

GT 28/1 in 4 overs: Shardul continues. Strays down the leg side first ball and called wide. FOUR! A bit of room outside off and Gill cuts through point for a boundary. Hangs back next ball and dabs behind point for one more. Shankar collects one with a gentle tap on the off. Two more singles to end the over. Shardul gets Shankar’s inside edge on the last ball that trickles behind square for a single.

GT 19/1 in 3 overs: Khaleel replaces Mustafizur. Shankar almost chops it on. The Gujarat dugout would have heaved a sigh of relief. Shankar nicks but it doesn’t carry to Pant. The batters end up stealing a quick single.

GT 14/1 in 2 overs: Shardul to share the new ball. He cramps Shankar and Lalit, at slip, has a shy at the stumps. Gill picks up a boundary, pulling one from outside the line of the off-stump through midwicket. It is a no-ball. However, he gets only a run off the free hit.

GT 7/1 in 1 over: The openers are up and running. The field is predominantly tight on the offside and there are two slips in place, which means Pant is expecting some early movement off the surface. There is an early player review for caught behind. Mustafizur seems confident. And Wade’s gone! The UltraEdge shows a huge spike as the ball passes the bat. Shankar is in at 3. Shankar nails the timing as he knocks Mustafizur through mid-on for four.

Gill and Wade to open for Gujarat. Mustafizur to bowl the first over.

Meanwhile, in Navi Mumbai, Rajasthan Royals have sealed an emphatic 23-run win over Mumbai Indians to reclaim the top spot in the standings.

GT vs DC PLAYING XI

Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill, Matthew Wade (wk), Vijay Shankar, Hardik Pandya (c), David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Abhinav Manohar Sadarangani, Rashid Khan, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Aaron, Mohammed Shami

Delhi Capitals: Prithvi Shaw, Tim Seifert, Mandeep Singh, Rishabh Pant (wk/c), Lalit Yadav, Rovman Powell, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman

WHAT THE CAPTAINS SAID

Hardik Pandya: We were going to bat as well. There is a breeze. We don’t expect dew. Didn’t face any issues during the training also. So thought we will test our batting a bit. We are playing the same team.

Rishabh Pant: We would like to bowl first. We have a different bowling line-up. We will be comfortable chasing after the first game. Fizz (Mustafizur) comes in for Nagarkoti.

TOSS

Delhi Capitals opts to bowl.

PITCH REPORT

“It’s a fresh pitch. There is a lot of grass and there is good carry and bounce. As a bowler, if you want to survive, you have to bowl the hard length. Dew factor isn’t that great here, which is why this is the only venue where a team batting first has won the game. Will be interesting to see what the captain winning the toss will do,” reckons Deep Dasgupta.

GT vs DC DREAM11 FANTASY TEAM LEAGUE PREDICTION

Wicketkeepers: Matthew Wade, Rishabh Pant

Batters: David Miller, Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill

All-rounders: Axar Patel, Rahul Tewatia (vc), Hardik Pandya (c)

Bowlers: Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Rashid Khan

Team Composition: GT 7-4 DC Credits Left: 0.0

GT vs DC PREDICTED 11

Delhi Capitals: Prithvi Shaw, Tim Seifert (wk), Mandeep Singh, Rishabh Pant (c), Lalit Yadav, Rovman Powell, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Chetan Sakariya.

Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill, Matthew Wade (wk), David Miller, Vijay Shankar, Abhinav Manohar, Hardik Pandya (c), Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Lockie Ferguson, Mohammed Shami, Jayant Yadav.

MATCH PREVIEW

In the lead-up to the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) 2022 edition, Saturday’s match may have been billed as a face-off between Rashid Khan and Rishabh Pant or Hardik Pandya and Shardul Thakur.

However, it could well be the mini-battle between lesser-fancied all-rounders Lalit Yadav and Rahul Tewatia that could be decisive as Delhi Capitals takes on Gujarat Titans at the Maharashtra Cricket Association’s International Stadium under lights.

It was Lalit Yadav – ably aided by senior all-rounder Axar Patel – who starred in the Capitals’ opening win versus Mumbai Indians. Similarly, Tewatia, despite not being asked to bowl, took the game away from Lucknow Super Giants with his swashbuckling hits to help Titans take honours in the all-debutante clash.

READ |
IPL 2022: Lalit Yadav, Axar Patel have given DC a huge boost, says Agarkar

It will be interesting to see how Lalit, the offspinner who is an equally good finisher, and Tewatia, respond to being in the limelight on Saturday. If the duo can sizzle, it will make the job of the big guns in their respective units much easier.

Both the squads had a training session at the stadium on Friday evening. Capitals’ all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, whose fitness is under the scanner, is serving mandatory quarantine after arriving in Mumbai.

The Titans will be hoping for Hardik Pandya to continue to build on the four overs he bowled in their maiden game and for Rashid to continue to put the Capitals’ specialist batters under pressure. Having failed to fire versus Mumbai Indians last week, it will be interesting to see how the likes of captain Pant and Prithvi Shaw respond on Saturday.

– Amol Karhadkar

SQUAD

Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill, Matthew Wade, Vijay Shankar, Hardik Pandya (c), David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Abhinav Manohar Sadarangani, Rashid Khan, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Aaron, Mohammed Shami, Wriddhiman Saha, Pradeep Sangwan, Jayant Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Alzarri Joseph, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Darshan Nalkande, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Dominic Drakes, Sai Sudharsan, Yash Dayal, Noor Ahmad

Delhi Capitals: Prithvi Shaw, Tim Seifert, Mandeep Singh, Rishabh Pant (c), Lalit Yadav, Rovman Powell, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Kuldeep Yadav, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Srikar Bharat, Sarfaraz Khan, Lungi Ngidi, Mustafizur Rahman, Ashwin Hebbar, Praveen Dubey, Anrich Nortje, Chetan Sakariya, Ripal Patel, Yash Dhull, Vicky Ostwal

WHERE TO WATCH IPL 2022 LIVE?

All IPL 2022 matches will be broadcast live on Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1 HD, Star Sports 3, and Star Sports 3 HD channels in India. Disney+ Hotstar is the official live streaming partner.