A slight stutter in the middle overs may have put defending champions Gujarat Titans in a tougher situation to defend the 177 they scored against Rajasthan Royals at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Sunday.
Rajasthan’s alertness on the field, especially quick thinking in reacting to rebounds played a key role in derailing the Titans a bit. Otherwise they could have gone past 190, which could have been a tougher challenge for last year’s runners-up in their bid to post their first win over Gujarat.
At the time of going to press, RR were 51-3 in 9.3 overs.
Also read: IPL 2023: Mohit, Gill shine as Gujarat Titans beat PBKS by six wickets
Earlier, the home team’s first wicket was comical when Wriddhiman Saha skied the ball high above the 22-yard strip. Three Royals players—wicketkeeper Sanju Samson, Shimron Hetmyer from square leg and Dhruv Jurel from point—ran to grab the skier without calling out. Jurel avoided the collision, but Hetmyer and Samson collided and the ball popped out of the Royals skipper’s gloves. Bowler Trent Boult was standing a yard away and watching the comical scene enacted by the three, but was alert enough to grab the rebound to send Saha back to the pavilion.
Shubman Gill (45, 34 balls, 4×4, 1×6) and Hardik Pandya (28, 19 balls, 3×4, 1×6) put on 59 runs in 33 balls to put Titans on the road to a sizeable total. Three Royals spinners, however, put runs on ration in the middle overs. In that period, Yuzvendra Chahal also took Gujarat skipper Pandya’s wicket. They could have added David Miller (46,30 balls, 3×4,2×6) but Adam Zampa failed to hold on to a sharp return catch when the South African left-hander was on six. He went on to score at a strike rate of 153.33 to speed up Titans’ score, adding 45 runs in 22 balls with big hitting Abhinav Manohar (27, 13 balls, 3×6).
