Captain Shubman Gill cracked a blistering century while B Sai Sudharsan hit his maiden IPL ton as Gujarat Titans kept themselves in the play-offs race with a 35-run win over Chennai Super Kings here on Friday.
Sudharsan (103 off 51 balls) matched skipper Gill (104 off 55 deliveries) stroke for stroke as the two openers notched up destructive centuries to propel GT to 231/3.
The home team's bowlers then stopped the defending champions for 196/8 despite fighting fifties from Daryl Mitchell (63) and Moeen Ali (56).
Sent into bat, Gill and Sudharsan put up a six-hitting exhibition as they notched up a 210-run stand, the highest partnership for any wicket in the IPL this season.
The two also equaled Quinton de Kock and KL Rahul's highest-ever IPL opening partnership.
While Gill's remarkable innings was punctuated by nine fours and six maximums, Sudharsan's maiden IPL hundred was peppered with five boundaries and seven sixes.
In contrast, the CSK openers were back in the hut with just two runs on the board. Their best batter this season, skipper Rituraj Gaikwad (0) was also sent packing with Rashid Khan completing a brilliant catch on the boundary with the defending champions reeling at 10/3.
Mitchell and Moeen steadied the ship with some counter attacking play, stitching a 109-run partnership. The two targeted the Afghan spin duo of Rashid and Noor Ahmad.
While Moeen clobbered three sixes on the trot off Noor in the 11th over, Mitchel hit a boundary and a six in the next over off Rashid to bring down the equation to 113 runs off the last 48 balls.
But veteran Mohit Sharma (3/31) struck off his very first ball, dismissing Mitchell and then came back to take the scalps of Moeen and Shivam Dube (21).
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Gujarat Titans Innings |
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|
231-3 (20 ov) CRR:11.55 |
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|
batter |
R |
B |
4s |
6s |
SR |
|
| Sai Sudharsan | c S Dube b TU Deshpande | 103 | 51 | 5 | 7 | 201.96 |
| Shubman Gill(C) | c R Jadeja b TU Deshpande | 104 | 55 | 9 | 6 | 189.09 |
| David Miller | Not out | 15 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 150 |
| Shahrukh Khan | Not out | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 66.67 |
|
extras |
6 (b 0, Ib 1, w 5, nb 0, p 0) |
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|
total |
231 (3 wkts, 20 ov) |
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|
Bowler |
Oh |
M |
R |
W |
W.D. |
Eco |
| Mitchell Santner | 2 | 0 | 31 | 0 | 0 | 15.5 |
| Tushar Deshpande | 4 | 0 | 33 | 2 | 2 | 8.25 |
| Shardul Thakur | 4 | 0 | 25 | 0 | 0 | 6.25 |
| Simarjeet Singh | 3.5 | 0 | 59 | 0 | 2 | 15.39 |
| Ravindra Jadeja | 2 | 0 | 29 | 0 | 0 | 14.5 |
| Daryl Mitchell | 4 | 0 | 52 | 0 | 1 | 13 |
Yet, the manner in which CSK defended a total of 167 in Dharamsala against Gujarat Titans will give their fans hope of upping the ante against Titans, who have already lost seven in the tournament so far.
A win will take them to third place in the standings, ahead of Sunrisers Hyderbad by virtue of better net run-rate. Among the three teams stuck on 12 points, only CSK (+0.700) enjoys a positive net run-rate.
IPL 2024: GT vs CSK Playing 11
GT Playing 11: Shubman Gill(c), Sai Sudharsan, Shahrukh Khan, David Miller, Matthew Wade(w), Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Umesh Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Kartik Tyagi
Impact Subs: Abhinav Manohar, Sandeep Warrier, BR Sharath, Darshan Nalkande, Jayant Yadav
CSK Playing 11: Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Shivam Dube, Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(w), Mitchell Santner, Shardul Thakur, Tushar Deshpande, Simarjeet Singh.
Impact Subs: Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Aravelly Avanish, Sameer Rizvi, Mukesh Choudhary