NEWS
Follow UsGujarat Titans recorded an emphatic 62-run win against Mumbai Indians in the second Qualifier to set up a final clash with the Chennai Super Kings on Sunday, May 28, at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
After being asked to bat first, Shubman Gill slammed his third century of the season as he smashed 129 runs off 60 deliveries to power the home team to 233 runs in the first innings.
In reply, the five-time champions never really got going in the run chase and lost wickets at regular intervals to eventually succumb to a massive defeat.
In the post-match press conference, Mark Boucher, the Head Coach of the side rued lack of discipline by the bowling unit that helped the Titans post a formidable first innings total.
"233 was a bit high, to be fair. Probably 25 to 30 runs too much. It was a little bit unsettling because we weren't quite sure how Ishan was going to go."
"Nehal, we knew that he could do the job. In the practice games that we played, he actually opened the batting, and he played fairly aggressively, which we needed; someone to go out and play that way tonight. It didn't come up for us, but it's T20 cricket, where you have to adapt to the conditions.
“We lost Nehal early. I think Green was the one that also unsettled us a bit, he got a blow to the arm, and he came off. Thankfully he was able to go back out and bat for us and put us in a decent position up until sort of like the 15th over," Boucher said.
"Unfortunately, we just lost too many wickets, and I think that is our downfall from the batting perspective tonight. We gave it a good go right up until the 15th over. If one of our batters that were in there had batted right to the end, it might have been closer than the end result," he added.
The former South African player was pleased with the performance of the side despite going down in the Qualifier and stated that reaching the playoffs was a great achievement given the injuries surrounding the team.
“First of all, the experience has been fantastic, and I have really enjoyed it. I got a good group of guys in the dressing room, and the support staff is great as well, with lots of experience. It is a very tough competition, and it takes a lot to win a game of cricket."
"There are a lot of good teams that you come up against, and the results can go either way, so it's quite a stressful competition. But to get to the playoffs is a great achievement. Obviously disappointed about tonight's result but I think we fought right to the end," he added.
While the batting unit of Mumbai has been firing in most of the games, the performance of their captain Rohit Sharma was a cause of concern for the team management.
However, Boucher backed the right-handed batter to return to his best very soon. “Rohit is a quality player. What I do think is that he led from the front in regards to driving the sort of way we wanted to play. I think our batting this season was fantastic," he said.
"We went out at the beginning of the season, and we looked at our stats and thought we could improve in certain phases of the game. And the captain is the best person to go out there and drive that vision as well."
"So if you look at how we did in the powerplays compared to last season, from 7 to 10, you know we really upped the scoring rates, and we played a good positive brand of cricket, which will stand us in good stead for the future because the guys will gain a lot of confidence from that."
"Unfortunately, T20 game is tough at times, and we were outplayed today. Gill played fantastic innings, and unfortunately, we couldn’t execute on the night, which happens in T20 cricket.”
"I think it's time to just sit back, reflect a bit, take the emotion out of it and make some good sound cricketing decisions once everything's calmed down and once we understand the future of certain individuals and where they are from a fitness perspective," he concluded.
