@B0$
Gujarat Titans rode their red-hot momentum wave to keep the Rajasthan Royals winless in Jaipur with a 77-run win, marking their biggest ever victory in their relatively short IPL history. Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan set up a big total with the bat, before the bowlers ran through the batting lineup to catapult the Titans to second position on the points table with only net run-rate separating them from table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad.
@B1$
@B2$Gujarat Titans 229/4 in 20 overs [Shubman Gill 84 (44), Sai Sudharsan 55 (36), Washington Sundar 37* (20); Brijesh Sharma 2-47] beat Rajasthan Royals 152 in 16.3 overs [Ravindra Jadeja 38 (25), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 36 (16); Rashid Khan 4-22, Jason Holder 3-12, Kagiso Rabada 2-33] by 77 runs
@B3$
It was another day out for the famed Sudharsan-Gill combination. But once again, it was GT's bowling unit that sealed this contest. On a good batting strip, 230 was certainly not beyond the realms of possibility for RR after yet another blazing Vaibhav Sooryavanshi start. But Kagiso Rabada continued to make hay in the Powerplay, bouncing out Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shimron Hetmyer after Mohammed Siraj dismissed Sooryavanshi off the short ball. The game was still on after the Royals scored 78 in the Powerplay but Rashid Khan cut the middle-order to size to shut the hosts out.
@B4$
Perhaps the only thing that went right on the evening for RR was the toss as Yashasvi Jaiswal, standing in for an injured Riyan Parag, elected to field first. The hosts donned an all-pink kit to support a noble cause but their bowling unit, which hadn't been in the pink of health for a few games, looked far from incisive. And nothing drove home that fact more than an 11-ball opening over from Jofra Archer, who overstepped and bowled multiple wides as he failed to control the swing on offer. Eighteen runs came off the first over and Archer was replaced by Brijesh Sharma in the third over, summing up what was to come for the Royals.
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The bowling was shoddy and for a pair that has mastered the art of percentage batting, Gill and Sudharsan were not going to miss out. Tushar Deshpande speared too many outside leg stump to the left-hander, who was the dominator early on before Gill put on an exhibition of aesthetic power-hitting, launching Archer down the ground with effortless ease. An 82-run Powerplay marked GT's most productive phase of the season. Both batters eventually brought up their fifties - off 30 balls each.
@B6$
Head coach Kumar Sangakkara had an animated chat with his players during the timeout that followed the Powerplay. It seemed to work to some extent as the spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Yash Raj Punja tightened the screws, combining for 2/71 off their eight overs. The steady slowdown told on Sudharsan as he miscued a slot delivery off Punja to long on, before Buttler shanked a 107.2 kph Jadeja delivery to long off. On the back of the spinners' success, Jaiswal turned to an over of part-time spin from Donovan Ferreira but once the pacers returned, they travelled again. Gill found an able ally in Washington Sundar, who kept the momentum going with regular hits to the fence.
Archer endured an off day so bad that he did not even bowl his fourth over. Gill missed out on a hundred and Brijesh sent down a four-run 19th over, but Sundar and Rahul Tewatia peeled off three sixes off Deshpande's final over to wrest momentum back in the Titans' favor as they finished on 229.
@B7$
A breezy but entertaining blitz this time. Little surprise that he struck a six off the first ball he faced from Siraj, although he jammed an inswinging yorker onto his right ankle, demanding the physio's attention. He visibly struggled with his running and there were a couple of streaky shots that followed, but it did not seem to affect him as he smashed a couple of sixes off Rabada. His skill was on full display with a late cut through backward point and a drill straight back past Siraj, but a well-directed bumper at the body got the better of him as Siraj let out a huge roar.
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Dhruv Jurel attacked the pacers in the Powerplay, underlined by a 22-run over off Siraj. But once Rashid was introduced, Jurel's recent woes against spin surfaced again. He was cleaned up by a googly before Donovan Ferreira was bamboozled by the leg-break a couple of deliveries later. Rashid was impeccable with his lengths and would go on to nab two more including Ravindra Jadeja, who showed positive intent early on with a six and a four off his first two balls but eventually had too much on his plate. Closing it out - fittingly with a bunch of short-pitched deliveries - was Jason Holder, who continued his rich vein of form with the ball as RR were bundled out inside the 17th over.
@B9$
GT fly back home to face SRH on Tuesday (May 12) in a contest that could hand the winner a foot in the playoffs. RR are set for another long break and do not play for the next week, taking the field against Delhi Capitals in Delhi on Sunday (May 17).
