In an Indian Premier League game, all-arounder Axar Patel became just the fourth player from the Delhi Capitals to score fifty or more runs, claim at least one wicket, and make a catch.
At this Wednesday’s Arun Jaitley Stadium IPL match between his team and the Gujarat Titans, Axar achieved this accomplishment.
After Axar arrived at the crease with the team at 35/1, he executed a spectacular counterattack, hitting 66 in 43 balls, including five fours and four sixes. He scored runs at a strike percentage exceeding 153. Axar and captain Rishabh Pant had an important 113-run partnership.
Afterwards, in the GT’s 225-run pursuit, Azmatullah Omarzai was removed by Axar. The all-rounder also made several outstanding catches to get rid of GT captain Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha, and Sai Sudarshan, who were the top three players.
For the Delhi Capitals in the IPL, players other than Axar Patel who have achieved this accomplishment include JP Duminy, Paul Collingwood, and Virender Sehwag.
In2008, Sehwag became the first player for his team to accomplish this feat against the Chennai Super Kings, hitting 71 runs, claiming a wicket, and making a catch.
In2010, Paul Collingwood amassed 53 runs for Delhi against the Kolkata Knight Riders while taking a wicket and a catch.
The previous DC player to achieve this feat before to Axar was JP Duminy, who did it in a 2015 match against Sunrisers Hyderabad by scoring 54 runs, claiming four wickets, and making two catches.
When the game started, Gujarat chose to bowl first after winning the toss. Prithvi Shaw and Jake Fraser McGurk got off to a quick start, but DC was only able to muster 44/3. Subsequently, Rishabh Pant and Axar Patel attacked GT again. Pant and Tristan Stubbs combined to dismantle GT’s death bowling in the final overs. Pant struck five fours and eight sixes to end at 88* in 43 balls.
DC finished their 20 overs at 224/4. For GT, Sandeep Warrier was the best bowler.
GT lost skipper Shubman Gill early in the run-chase. With an 82-run partnership between Wriddhiman Saha and Sai Sudarshan, a counterattack was once again in the works. David Miller, Sai Kishore, and Rashid Khan applied pressure to the DC bowlers in the latter stages of the game, but the hosts maintained composure to win by four runs, limiting GT to 220/8 in their 20 overs.
Kuldeep Yadav and Rasikh Salam were two of DC’s best bowlers.
‘Player of the Match’ went to Pant.
DC has four wins, five losses, and eight points, placing it in sixth place in the points standings. However, GT has a lower net run rate and is ranked seventh despite having the same win-loss record and number of points.
