The BCCI has fined Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill Rs 12 lakhs after his team maintained a slow over-rate against the Delhi Capitals in their IPL 2025 match at Narendra Modi Stadium on Saturday (April 19). Gill-led GT had faced punishment during the match as well as they only allowed four fielders outside the 30-yeard circle for the 20th over. The umpires asked Gill to field only four outside the circle due to the slow over-rate.
“As this was his team’s first offence of the season under Article 2.22 of the IPL’s Code of Conduct, which pertains to minimum over-rate offences, Gill was fined INR 12 lakhs,” the BCCI said in a statement.
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Coming to the contest, riding on Jos Buttler’s unbeaten 97, which he made braving cramps, Gujarat Titans chased down the target of 204 with four balls to spare.
Earlier, Gujarat Titans bowlers, led by impressive pacer Prasidh Krishna (4/41), produced a disciplined effort to keep Delhi Capitals to a tad underwhelming 203 for eight.
“At one point, it looked like the total was going to be 220-230. The way we pulled back, credit to the bowlers. Even in the first game, chasing around 245, we were right in the game, lost by just 10 runs. We’ve been chasing well, we’ve been defending well,” Gill said during the post-match presentation.
Buttler’s batting is aesthetically violent as he exploited a pitch on which the ball came fluently on to the bat. The Somerset man has all the shots in the book but plays them in the calmest of ways.
Instead of moving around the crease like modern T20 batters, Buttler often relies on a strong body core and quick hands to unfurl his shots. There was a telltale example of his methods when he biffed Mitchell Starc for five boundaries in a row in the 15th over.
Buttler did not move towards the ball but reached out with a feet firmly rooted on the ground as the ball sped to the ropes between covers and point regions. On the other hand, Rutherford’s batting was all about brute power, as he showed while pulling pacer Mohit Sharma for two consecutive sixes as GT motored on.
There was not a popular Buttler hundred as Rahul Tewatia finished off the match with a six and four off Starc with four balls to spare. The result also helped the Titans to move to the top of the table with 10 points, same as Delhi but the former has a better net run rate of 0.98 against their opponent’s 0.58.
Earlier, Gujarat bowlers led by Prasidh, produced a disciplined effort to stifle the Delhi batting unit. It started from the top-order. Abhishek Porel (23) started well, hammering pacer Mohammed Siraj for 16 runs in the first over.
The barrage included two fours and a six and he looked set for a bigger score. But he perished in the next over to Arshad Khan, clubbing his over-pitched delivery straight to Siraj at mid-on. KL Rahul (28, 14b) and Karun Nair (31, 18b) added 35 runs for the second wicket and played some delectable shots.
Rahul’s six over long-on off Siraj and Karun’s pick-up flick for a six off Arshad were simply wonderful. But Prasidh trapped his Karnataka teammate Rahul with a searing yorker that pinged his back foot to break the promising alliance.
Karun tried to ramp Prasidh but Arshad took an easy catch at wide third man as DC slipped to 93 for three despite consuming only nine overs.
The visitors then weaved another good stand of 53 runs through Tristan Stubbs (31) and Axar Patel (39) for the fifth wicket.
Stubbs’s cover drives off Prasidh that raced to the fence testified his grace and power.
Just as the South African, who was dropped on 30 by Rashid Khan off his own bowling, was gaining in confidence, he chose to play a reverse paddle off Siraj only to be caught by Prasidh at short third man. The Karnataka pacer returned to get rid of Axar as he continued to dig the ball into the pitch to get some bounce and grip to keep the batters guessing. Ashutosh Sharma (37, 19b) played some beefy shots as they crossed the 200-run mark. (With PTI inputs)