Gujarat Titans 154 for 4 (Gill 67, Saha 30, Brar 1-20) beat Punjab Kings 153 for 8 (Short 36, Jitesh 25, Mohit 2-18) by six wickets
But with 13 needed off 12, Arshdeep Singh bowled a nerveless penultimate over going for just six. Curran then cleaned up Gill second ball of the final one before bowling an inch-perfect yorker which almost resulted in David Miller’s run-out. Through it all though, Tewatia just held his cool, like he normally does, and came out a winner.
Kings’ batting plans go awry
Bhanuka Rajapaksa managed 20 off 26 balls, Jitesh Sharma 25 off 23, while Curran scored a run-a-ball 22. The dot balls hurt Kings the most. Even in the powerplay where they went big, there were 20 balls which the batters failed to score off, while in the middle overs – 7 to 16 – there were 28 dot balls. In contrast, Titans faced only 12 dot balls in the first six overs and 18 dots in the middle phase.
Shahrukh Khan, coming in at No. 7, smashed a 9-ball 22 to get Kings over the 150-mark, but it was never going to be enough.
Mohit turns back the clock
Titans’ chase got off to a perfect start courtesy Gill and Wriddhiman Saha. Gill was up and away with a lovely cover drive off Arshdeep before clipping Kagiso Rabada through mid-on. Saha got his boundary counter running with a stylish cover drive off Rabada before he laid into Arshdeep, creaming him for four fours in the third over as Titans raced to 36 for 0 after three overs. While Rabada did claim Saha’s wicket – his 100th in the IPL – Titans scored 56 runs in the powerplay. Kings needed to be better with the new ball, especially given they were defending only 153.
Sai Sudharsan and Gill then added 41 runs for the second wicket off 40 balls, with both players concentrating more on singles than boundaries. Hardik Pandya came and went before a lofted four over extra cover helped Gill reach his second fifty of this IPL.
The opener continued to go hard, an 81 metre six off Rabada standing out. He added a 42-run stand with Miller off 30 balls, but his dismissal in the final over threw the game open… at least until Tewatia slammed it shut.
Impact Player Strategy
Titans did not use their impact player, while Kings brought in Rahul Chahar in place of Rajapaksa at the end of their first innings. Chahar failed to make much of an impact, going for 24 runs in his three overs and failing to pick a wicket.