Gujarat Titans 199 for 7 (Gill 72, Rashid 24*, Tewatia, 22, Kuldeep 3-41) beat Rajasthan Royals 196 for 3 (Samson 68, Parag 76, Rashid 1-18) by three wickets
Rashid conceded simply 18 off his 4 overs, and may have had no less than yet another wicket however for dropped catches; with out his effort, Gujarat Titans may have been chasing a lot greater than 197. That was a troublesome ask in itself, and it got here down to 40 off 15 balls once they misplaced their sixth wicket.
Guess who walked in then? Sure, him once more.
Two to get, one ball left, and Avesh went quick and outdoors off. Rashid unfurled his wrists, among the many strongest and most versatile in world cricket, and carved the ball to the vacant boundary past level, and Titans had ended Royals’ unbeaten run.
Rashid vs Royals, half 1
Yashasvi Jaiswal threatened to break his run of low scores with a sequence of thrilling off-side boundaries early on, however each he and Jos Buttler fell contained in the powerplay, leaving Royals 42 for two.
Buttler departed in Rashid’s first over, the sixth of the innings, edging a sharply turning legbreak to slip whereas attempting to drive inside-out. The primary ball he had confronted from Rashid had saved low and overwhelmed him outdoors off, giving Royals an early clue of how troublesome they’d discover it to rating towards Rashid.
Parag and Samson arrange difficult whole
At instances, Noor Ahmad seemed simply as threatening as his Afghan spin twin on the different end, however he did not fairly bowl with the identical management of size. Parag took each alternative he bought to slog-sweep Noor, when he went a little too full or a little too far down the leg facet, and that shot introduced him three sixes and a 4 towards the left-arm wristspinner. In all, Parag hit 33 off 17 towards Noor, the centrepiece of one other spectacular show, his third fifty in 5 innings this season.
The one bowler the third-wicket pair did not go after, although, was Rashid. Parag scored 13 off 15 towards him, and Samson 5 off six. His ultimate over, the sixteenth, produced 5 singles and a dot.
With Rashid’s quota carried out, Royals went arduous, taking 57 off their final 4 overs. Parag fell within the nineteenth, and Shimron Hetmyer, who has seldom bought a probability to get his eye on this season, clattered an unbeaten 13 off 5 as he and Samson hit 24 off the final eight balls of the innings.
Gill units the platform, Sen and Chahal wreck it
Titans hit some luxurious pictures of their powerplay – Sai Sudharsan uppercut Avesh for six, Shubman Gill launched Maharaj inside-out over the duvet boundary – however they went at lower than eight an over in that part, ending it at 44 for no loss.
Even their good overs weren’t ending up as really large overs – Sudharsan punched Chahal for back-to-back fours to begin the eighth, however Titans solely scored 12 off the over, and will have misplaced Sudharsan had Chahal not dropped a return catch.
Vijay Shankar confirmed a little bit of initiative and inventiveness to hit three fours in his first 9 balls, however he was bowled lacking a sweep off Chahal, and Titans went into their final six needing 86. Gill, on 53 off 37, hadn’t hit a boundary for the reason that tenth over.
Gill modified gears at that time, hitting Ashwin for a pair of fours within the fifteenth over and beginning the sixteenth with two extra fours, liberating his arms to take full toll of Chahal’s line large of off stump. Then got here what appeared a decisive second: Gill stepped out, maybe a contact too early, and Chahal, seeing him coming, fired it even wider – a real large – to have him stumped for 72 off 44.
Titans’ finishers end it off
The final 4 started with Titans needing 59, and the additional muscle of their line-up – that they had included the out-and-out T20 hitters Manohar and Shahrukh Khan for the primary time this season – started to repay. Ashwin’s ultimate over, the seventeenth, went for 17, as Shahrukh and Tewatia hit him for a six and two fours between them, bringing the equation down to 42 off 18.
Royals have used Avesh and Sandeep Sharma as their fundamental demise bowlers this season, with Trent Boult not used even as soon as on this part. Boult conceded solely eight in his two powerplay overs right here, however Royals continued to not use him on the demise right here, trusting Avesh to do his assigned job and Sen to step into the absent Sandeep’s footwear.
Avesh conceded simply seven within the 18th over, alongside the best way spearing in a full ball to lure Shahrukh lbw, enjoying throughout it.
The momentum appeared to be with Royals, however Sen’s nineteenth reversed it, as Tewatia, Rashid and extras mixed to shave 20 off the 35 that Titans required. The final ball of that over, shortish and angled throughout the left-handed Tewatia, produced a terrific shot beneath stress, flat-batted calmly over mid-off.
This left Titans needing 15 off 6. This workforce, with largely the identical personnel, had efficiently achieved last-over chases of 15 or extra on three events throughout their fairytale debut season of 2022. Tewatia and Rashid had been stars of that season and their runners-up second season in 2023, they usually have been within the center once more. Was there any approach for Titans not to win?
Karthik Krishnaswamy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
