Gujarat Titans defeated Punjab Kings by 6 wickets in Mumbai.
Liam Livingstone scored 64 for Punjab and Shubman Gill smashed 96 for Gujarat.
Rahul Tewatia hit two sixers of the final two deliveries to seal the win.
Opener Shubman Gill scored a fantastic 96 for the Gujarat Titans and then Rahul Tewatia clinched a tight contest with a couple of huge sixes in the final over, as they won by 6 wickets against the Punjab Kings.
Gujarat have won three out of three and and is the only unbeaten team in the tournament currently.
Batting first, Punjab had a bad start with Mayank Agarwal falling cheaply again, for 5, with Hardik Pandya getting his wicket in the second over. In came Punjab debutant Jonny Bairstow, and after striking a couple of boundaries, he too walked back to the hut when the pace and bounce of Lockie Ferguson was too much for him, and he was caught behind for 8.
Shikhar Dhawan at the other end wasn’t finding it very easy other but nonetheless kept on the hunt for the big hits. Hardik, Mohammed Shami and Ferguson had started well, restricting Punjab to 43/2 at the end of the powerplay. Dhawan meanwhile had been joined by Liam Livingstone, who played a sublime knock in the last game for Punjab.
Livingstone picked off from where he had left it the other day against the CSK side, and helped the Punjab scoring rate to get a move on. In the 10th over, Livingstone really went through the gears against Darshan Nalkande, one of the Gujarat debutants, hammering him for 14 runs.
Right after, Rashid Khan got into the act and dismissed Dhawan for 35, caught behind by Matthew Wade. Livingstone was the danger man for Gujarat at this point, and he was going great guns, helped on by a handy 11-ball 23 from Jitesh Sharma, who was dismissed by Nalkande.
Liam Livingstone scored a half-century against Gujarat Titans
Image: BCCI
The debutant also knocked over Odean Smith for a first ball duck, but Shahrukh Khan negotiated the hat-trick ball. Shahrukh and Livingstone took 18 runs of Shami’s next over before Hardik turned to Rashid Khan, who struck immediately. In the space of a few deliveries Rashid knocked over Liam Livingstone for 64 of 27 balls and then Shahrukh Khan 15 of 8 deliveries, swinging the momentum Gujarat’s way in the final phase of the innings.
Kagiso Rabada was run out for 1 soon after and Vaibhav Arora added 2 before Shami knocked him over. Rahul Chahar added a boundary off Ferguson and Arshdeep got one too in the penultimate over. In the final over bowled by Hardik, Chahar started off with a six over square leg and then added a boundary, in what became a 16-run over for Punjab. The final wicket added 27 runs as Punjab ended with 189/9.
In response, Gujarat Titans’ Shubman Gill was his fluent self, with Matthew Wade having one of the best seats in the house, much like India’s historic tour of Australia last year. Gill was hitting boundaries for fun, making it look extremely easy against Arshdeep and Arora, while Wade struggled to get going.
Wade was the first to depart in the fourth over, when Rabada had him caught behind by Bairstow for 6 of 7 balls.
Shubman Gill celebrates a half-century.
Image: BCCI
Gill was joined by Sai Sudharshan, and neither were looking to hold back, ending the powerplay with 53/1. The seventh, Rahul Chahar’s first, produced 13 more as the batters ran hard with the field spread out. The next two overs produced 23 runs for the Titans as both Gill and Sudharshan smashed a six each. In the 9th over, Gill brought up his fifty with a beautiful cover drive of Livingstone and Gujarat were coasting.
Gill made that over count, scoring 11 by himself, while the over costed 12. By the end of the 11th over, the Titans had crossed the 100-run mark with Gill setting up for a big one, much to the joy of his teammates. The opener was finding a boundary an over, helping the Titans stay with the required rate.
Sudharshan, who had been finding it tough to get his timing going momentarily, then despatched Rabada for a boundary to cow corner, in a 9-run over. Chahar then managed to dismiss Sudharshan for 35 of 30 balls, as Punjab managed to slip in a good over after a while.
Hardik joined Gill, with Gujarat very much heading towards the win, and Gill nearing a century. Hardik got into the act against Chahar, smashing him for a couple of boundaries, taking his side to within 37 runs of the target, with 3 overs to go.
While Hardik started to knock off the runs with a few boundaries, Gill could not see it out and was dismissed in the 19th over by Rabada for 96, when he tried to flay away a wide full toss. He scored 96 of 59, with 11 fours and a six to his name.
Off the final over, Gujarat needed 19 more with David Miller joining Hardik. The Gujarat skipper was run out of the first legal delivery with Miller being joined by Rahul Tewatia.
It was Tewatia versus Punjab once again and the left-hander hit two sixes from the last two deliveries of Odean Smith, to seal the win in style. Gujarat won by 6 wickets.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)