Follow UsThis hasn’t been Gujarat Titans’ season. After two successful years, Murphy’s Law seemed to be catching up with them. Everything was going wrong, right from the start.
With the ball, they were missing their primary strike-bowler, Mohammed Shami. With the bat, they were having a barren run in the opening department with the fourth lowest average (27.1) and the lowest strike rate (131.3) before their 12th game. Shubman Gill, the newly-appointed captain and their bank of runs, was having a mediocre season (average 32.2, strike rate 137.6).
As a result, they were languishing at the bottom of the points table before the reverse fixture against Chennai Super Kings.
But the opening pair of Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan overturned all those misfortunes by carting the Chennai bowlers all over the park in an unbelievable batting exhibition. Back as the opening pair after five matches, they forged a 210-run stand for the first wicket. It is only the sixth 200-plus stand in IPL history and only the second for the opening wicket.
They leveled the highest opening stand in IPL history — 210 between KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock for Lucknow in 2022. The strike rate had been a problem for Gujarat but they bettered the record by scoring it 17 balls quicker.
In fact, they were always on top of the run rate. Known to be slow starters, GT openers put up 43 runs in the first four overs. At no point in the innings did the run rate drop below 9.2. In the middle overs, they pummelled 132 runs, the most in an innings in this IPL season.
It was refreshing to watch from GT - a team that focussed on consolidation more than any other side in this run-fest of a season. They have had the lowest run rate in both the powerplay and the middle overs.
But Gill and Sudharsan carved boundaries from ball one. Batting for 17.2 overs together, they struck 27 boundaries (14 fours, 13 sixes) between them. That is more than 1.5 boundaries per over on average.
Leaving an underpar season behind him, Gill never let his strike rate go below 170. Sudharsan got most of the strike in the beginning, being the first one to reach the fifty off 31 balls in the ninth over. Gill reached his half-century off 25 balls with a six in the 11th over. Sudharsan, however, improved as the innings went on, striking at over 280 in his last 21 balls.
Between overs 11 and 14, they pummeled 72 runs, exposing CSK’s bowling plans. Without Matheesha Pathirana, Mustafizur Rahman, and Mahesh Theekshana, their bowling attack lacked variety. Both the prime spinners, Ravindra Jadeja and Mitchell Santner, are left-arm orthodox spinners, coming under a negative match-up against Sudharsan. Even Gill doesn’t have any vulnerabilities against spin when he is in this form. The bowling attack is all right-arm similar pace.
The left-arm spinners went for 60 runs in four overs between them. Sudharsan alone smashed both of them at a strike rate of 300. Barring Shardul Thakur, all other seamers went the distance.
Their middle over madness was akin to Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma’ powerplay mayhem in this tournament. The only difference was that while the SRH openers hammer the balls out of shape, Gill and Sudharsan were all about aesthetic batting to muster one boundary after another.
At the end of the 16th over, both batters were unbeaten on 96 off 48 balls. Two balls later, Gill notched up his fourth IPL hundred. It was also the 100th hundred of IPL, brought by Gill at a strike rate of 200, taking the score to exactly 200/0. Sudharsan ended the over with a six to reach his maiden IPL ton off 50 balls as well.
That was Sudharsan’s last scoring shot, as he was dismissed in the next over for a 51-ball 103. The partnership couldn’t carry the bat through, but the southpaw completed what he left unfinished in last year’s final, where he was out for 96 against CSK in Ahmedabad. He also completed 1000 runs in IPL, becoming the quickest Indian to do so by a margin of six innings.
Four balls later, Gill headed back for 104 off 55 deliveries. CSK conceded only 22 runs in the last three overs, bringing the score down from a potential 250 or 260-plus total to 230.
But before that, Gill and Sudharsan had shown the spark GT have been missing this season. Putting their team on top, they have kept their hopes of a playoff qualification alive. And more than that, they have done many other teams a favor who are clinging to their hopes of a top-four finish with 14 points or a negative net run rate with 16 points.