Follow UsGujarat Titans (GT) captain Shubman Gill feels black soil suits his team more than red soil. The Titans played Mumbai Indians (MI) on black soil on March 29 (Saturday) and ended up beating them by 36 runs. After scoring 196/8 in their 20 overs, GT managed to restrict MI to just 160/6, and Gill said he doesn’t want all games to be 240-250 matches.
"I think each team has their own strengths and the way they like to play a certain type of cricket. I think this kind of wicket suits our batting and bowling overall... strength of our team more than on the red soil. We just don't want all the games to be 240-250 runs. I feel if there are such high-scoring games, the skill out of cricket, it takes away from that," said Gill, who scored 38 off 27.
"We decided to play on this wicket before we played the first match. There was not enough time for us to prepare a red soil wicket. So, it was decided before we played the first match that we're going to play this match on a black soil wicket. It had nothing to do with the opposition."
It all started with Mohammed Siraj taking two wickets in the powerplay before Prasidh Krishna (2/18) broke the back of MI’s batting order by getting rid of in-form Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav. In the first innings, Sai Sudharsan got 63 off 41, while Gill and Jos Buttler chipped in with good cameos.
"So many things... the way we started off in the power play. On this kind of a wicket, scoring close to 200 runs is a great confidence for us going into the second innings. I think the way we bowled in the power play, the way we bowled in the middle, everything went our way in this match," said Gill.
140 of the 196 runs were scored by the top-three batters but Gill isn’t too worried about the middle-order. "I don't think so [middle order is a concern)]. Even in the previous match (vs Punjab Kings), I think, yes, it was a high-scoring game, and we were chasing around 250 runs (243), but Rutherford scored around 48 runs (46 in the middle order).
“It's not a bad start. So, I don't think we are at all concerned about the middle order.”