City’s Kevin De Bruyne set for last clash vs. Manchester United

AHMEDABAD: England’s Jos Buttler struck an unbeaten 97 to power Gujarat Titans to the top of the IPL table with a seven-wicket win over Delhi Capitals in Ahmedabad’s intense heat on Saturday.
Chasing 204 for victory, Gujarat rode on Buttler’s 54-ball knock laced with 11 fours and four sixes to achieve their target with four balls to spare at the world’s biggest cricket stadium.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Buttler and impact substitute Sherfane Rutherford, a left-hand West Indies batter who hit 43, put on a key stand of 119 to steer Gujarat to their fifth win in seven matches and the top of the 10-team table.
Delhi slipped to second.
Rutherford fell in the 19th over. Delhi’s left-arm quick Mitchell Starc needed to defend 10 off the final six balls but the left-handed Rahul Tewatia finished off with a six and four.
Buttler, who hit his third half-century of the season, was left three short of a hundred that would have put him level with Virat Kohli’s record eight IPL tons.
Gujarat, who won the IPL in their debut season in 2022, elected to field first on a hot afternoon as the temperature soared above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
Delhi reached 203-8 but the total could have been more had it not been for four wickets by Gujarat pace bowler Prasidh Krishna, who now leads this season’s bowling with 14 scalps.
Buttler was the hero as his batting charge stood out after his work behind the stumps for 20 overs in the heat as he gloved two catches.
Gujarat skipper Shubman Gill fell run out for seven in the second over after he attempted a tough single and a direct throw from Karun Nair rattled the stumps.
The left-right batting pair of Sai Sudharsan and Buttler put the innings back on track as they balanced caution and aggression in their stand of 60.
Left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav took down Sudharsan for 36 but Buttler found another partner in Rutherford, who took on the bowling and hit three sixes.
Earlier Delhi skipper Axar Patel top-scored with 39.
KL Rahul made 28 before Krishna trapped him lbw with a yorker and then cut short Nair’s knock in the ninth over.
Veteran pace bowler Ishant Sharma bowled two overs but went off after he struggled to cope with the scorching heat.
Ishant came back to bowl another over but again went back to the dug out and was subbed out with figures of 1-19.
Tristan Stubbs was out for 31 before Krishna sent back Axar and Vipraj Nigam with successive balls but the hat-trick was avoided.
Ashutosh Sharma hit 37 to boost the total.

GLASGOW: Palestinian forward Oday Dabbagh scored a late extra-time winner as Aberdeen eventually ground down nine-man Hearts to win 2-1 on Saturday and reach the Scottish Cup final.
The Dons struck first against the run of play when Pape Gueye’s header came back off the crossbar and ricocheted into his own net off the back of 42-year-old Hearts goalkeeper Craig Gordon.

Hearts levelled in the 28th minute when captain Lawrence Shankland met James Penrice’s cross from the left, took a touch and rifled a clinical finish through the legs of Dimitar Mitov.
The Edinburgh side suffered a huge blow a minute before the break when Michael Steinwender was shown a straight red after bringing down Topi Keskinen.
But the 10 men held out for well over an hour against an Aberdeen side lacking in invention.
Hearts’ task got even tougher when Cammy Devlin was shown a second yellow card with four minutes left of extra-time.
Aberdeen swiftly took advantage to reach their first Scottish Cup final in eight years when Dabbagh fired in the rebound after Jack Milne’s shot was saved by Gordon.
Jimmy Thelin’s side will face the winner of Sunday’s semifinal between Celtic and St. Johnstone at Hampden on May 25.