Gujarat Titans defeated defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru by four wickets on Thursday thanks to brilliant cameos from captain Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler.
Gill asked Bengaluru to bat first at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad with minimal hesitation because the chasing team had won all seven of the teams’ prior IPL games.
Bengaluru raced from 79/2 to 155 all out as Virat Kohli hit Kagiso Rabada for five fours in the match’s second over before falling to the same bowler shortly after.
Afghan Rashid Khan provided outstanding support for Gujarat’s most successful bowler, left-arm pacer Arshad Khan (3/22), while Devdutt Padikkal topped the score with a fluid 40.
With three catches and the wickets of Jitesh Sharma and Romario Shepherd, West Indian Jason Holder led Gujarat to a perfect first half. This led to a collapse in the middle order, which forced Bengaluru to call in Venkatesh Iyer as an impact substitute.
“It was one of those nights (when the ball kept following me). The energy was quite high. I am just happy to hold on to the chances and happy to help the team win,” AFP quoted player-of-the-match Holder as saying.
Despite a stumble in the middle of the modest chase, Gujarat made Bengaluru pay for their lack of a specialist seamer after deploying Venkatesh.
Bengaluru relied heavily on Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, two seasoned new-ball players, to strike early, but Gill had different ideas.
To give his team a great start, the opener tore into Hazlewood, hitting the Australian for three fours and two sixes in the second over.
Buttler maintained the momentum with a hat-trick of sixes in his knock of 39, but Bengaluru came back through Bhuvneshwar, who dismissed Sudharsan and Gill after a brilliant 43.
In his final one-over stint, Bhuvneshwar made a comeback and dismissed Buttler for his 17th wicket of the year. Gujarat made heavy weather of the chase with their prolific top three back in the hut.
Shepherd created some excitement by dismissing Shahrukh Khan and Washington Sundar in three deliveries, thanks in large part to Bengaluru’s lack of a specialist third seamer. However, Gujarat didn’t have to deal with run-rate pressure because Gill and Buttler had scored so quickly.
With 25 deliveries to spare, Rashid hit the winning boundary while Rahul Tewatia held the second half of the chase together.
