Rajasthan Royals defeated Gujarat Titans by just 6 runs in a thrilling match at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Saturday. The Royals scored 210/6 and maintained their composure to restrict GT to 204/8 in 20 overs in Ahmedabad.
In a display of superb bowling, Tushar Deshpande bowled a stunning last over, landing six straight deliveries on either blockhole or wide yorker length.
The Ashish Nehra-coached GT squad has now lost two straight games, while the Royals won their second match in a row.
Opener Sai Sudharsan top scored for GT with a 44-ball 73, but he didn’t get much support from his teammates as the next highest score was Jos Buttler’s 26.
It all boiled down to GT needing 11 off the final over that was bowled by Tushar Deshpande, who started with a wide and then gave singles off the next three deliveries. Deshpande then bowled a dot ball to GT stand-in captain Rashid Khan before having him caught by Jofra Archer at wide of sweeper cover.
GT needed 7 to win and a 6 to take the match to the Super Over but that was too much to ask for No. 10 Ashok Sharma, who just survived on the last ball, much to the thrill of Deshpande and the Royals.
Earlier, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi set the stage, then Dhruv Jurel skillfully combined aggression and caution in his 42-ball 75 to take Rajasthan Royals to 210/6.
After ‘Boy Wonder’ Sooryavanshi slammed 18-ball 31 in an opening stand of 70 in only 6.2 overs in the RR innings, Jaiswal appeared to be getting back into the groove with a 55 off 36 balls.
Jurel seems content in his new position as No. 3 and demonstrated that conventional shots have a place while still being able to maintain a strike rate of more than 150. Ashok Sharma’s pick-up pull after reaching his fifty was a delight, a testament to his powerful hands and solid core. He scored an identical amount of boundaries and five maximums.
In just his second IPL match, Ashok Sharma (1/37 in 4 overs) for the Gujarat Titans emerged as the “Next big pace hope” after continuously bowling northward at 145 kmph and clocking 154.2 ticks. However, BCCI coaches should exercise caution since there are lessons to be learned from the experiences of Mayank Yadav and Umran Malik.
Jurel’s knock brought back memories of the IPL’s early days, when one player would keep the innings intact before unleashing the full might on the opposition. The high point of his innings was a six against Rashid Khan over deep mid-wicket after dancing down the track.
Royals captain Riyan Parag chose to bat as Shubman Gill was out of the GT playing eleven owing to muscle spasms, and the excellent opening duo did not let him down either.
Even though the Sooryavanshi-Jaiswal partnership is still relatively new—they only started opening last year—a statistic from “Cricviz” shows how dominant they have been. With a scoring rate of 12.04 runs per over, Jaiswal and Suryavanshi stand out among the 113 partnerships in IPL history who have scored 500 or more runs together. They are third on the list, after Sunil Narine-Phil Salt (12.46) and Travis Head-Abhishek Sharma (12.57).
During the Powerplay overs, it was simple for batsmen to make shots since the quartet of Mohammed Siraj, Kagiso Rabada, Prasidh Krishna, and Ashok all extracted extra bounce and pace from the surface.
The courageous Sooryavanshi began with a barrage of boundaries, one of which was lofted over mid-off by Rabada. Ashok’s last-minute adjustment off a short ball that he sliced uppishly for a six was the most notable shot.
Sooryavanshi played one shot too many and was bowled by Rashid, but Jurel-Jaiswal added another 56 for the second wicket.
