Lucknow: Lucknow Super Giants pulled things back in their favour with some excellent bowling after fifties by openers Shubman Gill (60) and Sai Sudharsan (53) and restricted Gujarat Titans to 180/6 in 20 overs in Match 26 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium here on Saturday.
Spinner Ravi Bishnoi and pacer Shardul Thakur struck twice each, while Avesh Khan and Digvesh Rathi claimed a wicket each as LSG came back to prevent table-toppers Gujarat Titans from posting a big total.
Asked to bat first, Gujarat once again relied on the excellent technique on display by openers Gill and Sudharsan as the duo put up an opening stand of 120 runs to lay the foundation for a big total.
Sudharsan, who is the current occupant of the Orange Cap, showed his intent from the very first delivery when he played a late cut off Shardul Thakur to find the boundary. The duo racked up six boundaries and one six in the Power-play, while rotating the strike, to reach 54/0 as the field restrictions were lifted.
Gill took the attack to Aiden Markram, having entered the game with a solid record against the Proteas all-rounder, and smashed a four before dancing down the pitch to launch a six straight down the ground. He went on to raise his 22nd IPL fifty in 31 deliveries.
They reached the 100-run opening stand in 58 deliveries. Sudharsan, on the other hand, was almost denied his fifty when he was dropped on 46 by Abdul Samad and hit a four off the last ball of the Digvesh Rathi over to reach his fourth half-century of the tournament.
Just when it seemed the duo was ready to accelerate, a fuller delivery by Avesh Khan led to the dismissal of Gill. Gill launched the fine shot, on the first ball of the 13th over, and it appeared the ball was going to cross the long-on boundary but Markram took a splendid catch to give the home side the breakthrough.
Bishnoi further pulled things back in his side’s favour by striking twice in the very next over, removing both Sudharsan and Washington Sundar (2) to apply brakes on the run rate.
Digvesh was once again denied his first wicket of the night when Rutherford (22), while attempting to pull, ended up hitting from the toe-end of the bat. The ball went straight up in the air, and despite Akash Deep having the better chance of getting to the ball, skipper Rishabh Pant claimed it as his and was unable to reach the ball and ended up dropping it.
On the very next delivery, Jos Buttler (16) connected well with a reverse sweep to find the boundary but ended up getting dismissed on the next ball. After having two wickets dropped off his bowling, Shardul Thakur answered Digvesh’s prayer when he ran from short leg to take a solid diving catch towards his left.
What once seemed to be a sure shot 200+ score for Gujarat was drastically reduced as the LSG bowlers did well to restrict the new batters on the crease. Rutherford welcomed Avesh with back-to-back boundaries off the opening two deliveries of the penultimate over.
Due to a slow over rate, Shardul bowled the final over with four fielders outside the circle. Shahrukh Khan (11*) smashed a six off the first delivery before changing the strike. In an attempted slog, Rutherford completely missed the full toss and was caught plumb to end his time at the crease.
Rahul Tewatia (0) attempted to hit a pull shot on another full toss on his first ball at the crease and was caught easily by Markram at long-on. Rashid Khan (4*) came out to bat on the hat-trick ball and was not able to connect properly to the short delivery, but the ball fell in no man’s land to deny Shardul Thakur a hat-trick as Gujarat conjured up a target of 181 runs.
Brief scores:
Gujarat Titans 180/6 in 20 overs (Shubman Gill 60, Sai Sudharsan 53, Sherfane Rutherford 22; Shardul Thakur 2-34, Ravi Bishnoi 2-36) vs Lucknow Super Giants
(IANS)
