In what appeared like a walk in the park for the Hardik Pandya-led side in a run chase of 154, Punjab Kings bowlers came back strongly in the death overs to offer some resistance but failed to contain the tourists in the end.
As Shubman Gill was dismissed at the start of the final over, bowled by Sam Curran, Punjab Kings sniffed an improbable win but Rahul Tewatia and David Miller denied the hosts a last laugh. GT won the game with one ball to spare.
Poor Start for Punjab Kings with bat
Punjab’s innings got off to a poor start when Prabhsimran Singh was out for a second-ball duck after inadvertently lobbing Mohammed Shami to Rashid Khan, before captain Shikhar Dhawan was dismissed by Josh Little for just eight.
Matt Short was going well on 36 from 24 balls before a superb delivery from Rashid bowled the Australian.
Jitesh Sharma helped steady things with 25 from 23 before edging Mohit Sharma to Wriddhiman Saha, but Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Sam Curran played some risk-free cricket to make sure the Kings had some wickets in hand for the closing overs.
Rajapaksa fell for 20 with three overs left, with Curran following soon after for 22, though a quickfire 22 from Shahrukh Khan helped them to a final total of 153-8.
Solid start for Gujarat in run chase
Saha and Gill put on an opening partnership of 48 inside the first five overs before the former picked out Short at deep square leg off the bowling of Kagiso Rabada for 30.
Sai Sudharsan added 19 before being dismissed by Arshdeep Singh, while Hardik Pandya matched his fellow captain by also only managing eight runs before departing.
Gill was dramatically bowled by Curran in the final over as the Titans were left needing six from the final four balls, and then four from two, but Rahul Tewatia swept a four with the penultimate delivery to seal the win for Gujarat.
Gill dethrones Kings again
It was a superb effort from Gill, who hit four fours and one six as his 67 from 49 balls took the Titans to victory.
This was his fifth 50 against the Kings, his highest tally against any single opponent in the IPL, while no player has logged more scores of 50+ runs against Punjab than Gill since his IPL debut in 2018.
Dhawan cannot find the power
Shikhar Dhawan was unable to produce a much-needed captain’s innings for the Kings, trying to loft Little’s delivery over mid-on, but only finding the safe hands of Alzarri Joseph.
He has been dismissed 85 times during powerplay overs in the IPL, the most of any player and at least 15 more times than any other in the competition’s history (Parthiv Patel second on 70).
(With Agency Inputs)
