Opener Shubman Gill’s unbeaten 94 off 51 balls and ’keeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha’s 43-ball 81 propel Gujarat Titans to mammoth 227-2 before pacer Mohit Sharma claims 4-29 for defending champions to beat Lucknow Super Giants by 56 runs
GT’s Shubman Gill during his 94 not out against LSG at Ahmedabad yesterday. Pic/AFP
On a hot day, runs poured when Gujarat Titans batted, but after an aggressive start, Lucknow Super Giants found runs at a premium and fell 56 runs short of 228 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in the IPL-16 here on Sunday. The Titans made merry and kept the scoreboard ticking at a run-rate of over 11 throughout the 20 overs with the highest of 13 runs an over at the end of Powerplay. Chasing an imposing target of 228, Lucknow started well with Kyle Mayers and Quinton de Kock scoring at 12 runs an over in the first six overs and continued at 10 runs an over till the half-way mark.
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Rain threat
The middle overs, however, saw the Gujarat bowlers taking the ascendency over the Lucknow batters as the run-rate kept dropping like the mercury that began to drop just before sunset. The weather suddenly changed so much so that, as a precaution, the giant scoreboards began flashing the DLS scores as a cloud cover post dusk time hinted at possibility of rains.
Wriddhiman Saha celebrates his 50 against LSG yesterday. Pic/PTI
Earlier in the afternoon, the mercury touched 40 degrees Celsius and Gujarat’s opening batters prudently decided to minimise running between the wickets and accumulate runs through boundary hits or over the ropes. Seasoned campaigner Wriddhiman Saha (81, 43 balls, 10x4, 4x6) dealt mostly in boundaries, scoring 79 per cent of his runs through fours and sixes. He mostly employed pull shots for his big shots but was equally at ease playing inside-out drives through extra cover.
Saha first picked pacer Mohsin Khan, smacking two boundaries and two sixes while milking 22 runs in the fourth over. When Mohsin pitched it short, the Gujarat wicketkeeper pulled him for two fours and a six. Shubman Gill (94, 51 balls, 2x4, 7x6) was more circumspect but kept the scorers busy to match Saha’s strike rate (188.37) by scoring at a rate of 184.31. His boundary percentage, however, was lower at 53. Seventy-four per cent of the runs in Saha and Gill’s 74-ball partnership of 142 runs came from boundaries.
After a brilliant running catch by Prerak Mankad, ended Saha’s hurricane knock, Gill stayed rock steady to carry his bat through the innings. He hit only four boundary shots, including two sixes, after hitting five sixes during his opening wicket partnership with Saha.
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Cameos by Hardik, Miller
Gujarat skipper Hardik Pandya (25, 15 balls, 1x4, 2x6) was striking well before his older brother Krunal pulled off an easy catch at midwicket to end his knock. David Miller (21, 12 balls, 2x4, 1x6) ensured that he kept Gill company to take Gujarat to 227.
“We, as a team, had in mind that we were defending 180-190. As long as we had that in mind, I feel we were on the right side. It was more about doing the basics right and bowling in the right areas,” explained Gujarat’s ace spinner Rashid Khan at the post-match press conference.
He attributed Gujarat’s thumping win to the bowlers: “We bowled well as a unit and did not give them loose balls as we bowled bit better than during the Powerplay,” he pointed out. Table toppers Titans have 16 points from 11 matches and have set their eyes on a Top 2 finish in the 10-team league.
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