Synopsis: Top-heavy Titans crush CSK bowling before their bowling class put an end to their season in an emphatic manner.
Gujarat Titans seem to be getting into the groove at the perfect time. An all-round awesome performance put the Chennai Super Kings out of their misery as the five-time champions were thrashed by 89 runs. A target of 230 was always going to be too high against a bowling attack of GT’s class, and CSK’s sorry season ended with being bowled out inside 14 overs.
Openers shut case
They or their strokeplay are unlike anything expected of a typical T20 opening partnership these days. But Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill continue to get the job done, while being easy on the eye. Thursday brought their seventh century partnership in the IPL, as they set up Gujarat Titans’ impressive victory over Chennai Super Kings, that put the latter finally out of playoff contention.
It’s not that Sai and Gill didn’t improvise or play around with the bowlers’ lines and length. But there was no slogging – in fact, on the rare occasions they tried something outside their regular repertoire, it didn’t work out.
T20 cricket is a format largely associated with big hits and sixes. But the two shots that showcased Gill’s class came in the second over of the match. Aussie left-armer Spencer Johnson offered a bit of room and the Titans skipper stood tall to the hard-length ball. The bat made contact at the precise moment to impart the optimum timing and the ball sped past point to the boundary.
Later in the over, Gill played a delightful front-foot straight drive to a delivery that was not quite a half-volley, but the timing and placement had watchers drooling. It was the captain who made most of the early running, but Sai was biding his time. His consistency belies the law of averages in this format—Thursday’s knock was his fifth consecutive half-century of the tournament and seventh in his last eight visits to the crease.
The leg-side arc is the preferred scoring area for most batters in the shortest format, and the CSK bowlers tried to deny them that outlet. But Gill and Sai were a couple of steps ahead of them, repeatedly making room to hit through and over the offside. It was only when left-arm wrist-spinner Noor Ahmad came on that the cow corner was targeted. The 125-run stand in a little over 12 overs was match-defining and CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad was left to rue not challenging a caught-behind not-out verdict relatively early on against Gill.