For the last two IPL seasons, Rashid Khan had stopped looking like the bowler who could tilt an innings almost by force. The decline was visible in the numbers before it became a talking point around him. In IPL 2024, he managed 10 wickets in 12 matches and, for the first time in an IPL season, did not take even one three-wicket haul. In IPL 2025, the drop was sharper: 9 wickets in 15 matches, an average of 57.11, and an economy of 9.34. For a bowler who built his reputation on collapsing middle overs and shrinking chases, those are not just lean returns. They are a sign that the match was no longer bending to his will.

That is why the Gujarat Titans’ one-run win over the Delhi Capitals felt bigger than a routine early-season result. GT were defending 210, Delhi were unbeaten coming into the game, and the chase had enough moments where it threatened to become straightforward. Instead, Rashid produced the kind of spell that used to define him: 4 overs, 17 runs, 3 wickets, only one boundary conceded. This was not vintage solely because of the figures. It was vintage because of where the wickets came, and what they did to the chase.

Why this match mattered before Rashid even bowled

Delhi’s batting narrative this season had already taken a clear shape. The top order had not always made smooth starts, but Sameer Rizvi had become their crisis man. Against Lucknow Super Giants, Delhi were 26 for 4 before Rizvi’s unbeaten 70 carried them through. Against the Mumbai Indians, he struck 90 off 51 and turned the chase decisively in Delhi’s favour.

That context matters because Rashid was not merely bowling to a random middle-order batter when he removed Rizvi. He was bowling to the one Delhi batter who had already shown, twice, that he could repair an innings and then finish it with authority. In a chase of 211, that is a serious threat profile.
The spell was not just economical. It was strategically perfect.

Rashid Khan’s spell reads: 4-0-17-3. On its own, that is excellent. But it becomes extraordinary when set against the rest of Gujarat’s bowling. The other GT bowlers combined to give away 192 runs in 16 overs, which is exactly 12 runs per over. Rashid went at 4.25. In a one-run game, that is not a statistical side note. That is the match’s central bowling fact.