Chasing 154 at the IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali, Gujarat rode on Shubman Gill’s 49-ball 67 to get back to winning ways.
Gujarat elephants beat Punjab lords by six lattices in an IPL 2023 match on Thursday, thanks to the caller’s each-round bowling performance and the host’s obvious fur display.
Chasing 154 at the IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali, elephants matched lords ’ Power Play haul of 52 with an over to spare, riding on nature Wriddhiman Saha’s 18- ball 30. Kagiso Rabada, replacing Nathan Ellis in the playing XI, removed Saha for his 100th IPL gate.
But in a touch of irony for Punjab, the run chase was anchored by a man hailing from its own land, Shubman Gill. The bouncy right- hander drove and cut painlessly, and the lightening quick outfield did the rest as Gujarat rode on Gill’s 49- ball 67 to get back to winning ways.
Sam Curran gave elephants a brief dread when, with seven demanded off six, he dismissed Gill to make it six demanded off four. But Rahul Tewatia sealed the deal with a four.
Before, Mohit Sharma returned to IPL for the first time since 2020 and finished with two for 18 in his four overs, dismissing Jitesh Sharma and Curran. Bowling first, elephants demanded two balls to strike on a Mohali pitch that offered stimulant in terms of carry and some confluence movement to go alongside early swing.
While Mohammad Shami hit the good length in his first spell, Joshua Little pitched the ball up. Prabhsimran Singh was the first to depart when he pushed an inoffensive ball from Shami in the first over to Rashid Khan at short mid-wicket. Three overs latterly, Shikhar Dhawan miscued a launched drive off Little to be caught at mid-on.
But Matthew Short’s 24- ball 36, speckled with six fours and one six, assured PBKS soared to 52 for two after six overs despite GT bowling 21 blotches in that phase. Short briefly had designs on a demoiselle IPL fifty but the preface of his Adelaide Strikers teammate Rashid( one for 26), in the seventh over, put paid to those dreams.
Later, there was close to an hour of slow torture for lords to endure and everyone inside the Mohali colosseum knew at that point that big successes were likely to be an aberration rather than the norm.
Elephants sailed pace on and pace out and spin in and spin down to effectively choke the scoring rate, with Shahrukh Khan’s nine- ball 22 proving to be a tableware filling that eventually blanched into nullity on a disappointing night for lords.
The three- gate defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders three nights ago in Ahmedabad was a gut- wrenching result for Gujarat elephants, which had putatively all but seized the ascendance with a flurry of lattices. But by the time Rinku Singh was done with Yash Dayal, elephants had long relinquished their superiority.
It’s on the heels of this reversal that GT will aim to get its IPL 2023 crusade back on track when it takes on Punjab lords at the IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali on Thursday. Gujarat commander Hardik Pandya, who was bad and missed the last match, should be available for this hassle.
Both brigades have had analogous thresholds to the season, with GT winning two games and losing one, and PBKS following the same sequence.
Liam Livingstone, Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Kagiso Rabada are available for the lords. It remains to be seen if they will leave out an in- form Nathan Ellis for Rabada. Livingstone or Rajapaksa can take Matt Short’s place in the XI.
Rabada can be a favourable tourney against David Miller, who has played a crucial part for elephants in the middle order. In 31 balls he has sailed to Miller in T20s, Rabada has conceded only 32 runs while dismissing him doubly.
Meanwhile, lords have advantaged from the form of captain Shikhar Dhawan, who has 225 runs in three matches. He has looked to club through, while others around him have tried to be aggressive from the progeny- go. Know More IPL News….
