IPL24: Titanic opening batting effort by Gujarat Titans floor CSK & jolts their playoffs hopes

 


A year ago, Gujarat had to lose the IPL final at this ground.  Gujarat Titans  also had Mahendra Singh Dhoni's Chennai as their opponent.  Hardik Pandya's Gujarat Titans failed to win the championship despite scoring over 200 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.  The picture of the current IPL is completely different.  The captains of both teams have changed.  But losing to Gujarat made the road to the playoffs difficult for Chennai.  Behind which Shubman Gill and Sai Sudarshan scored a couple of breathtaking centuries.  In the end, Gujarat won the match by 35 runs.



 Chennai captain Ruturaj Gaikwad won the toss and decided to bowl first.  Dhoni took the same decision in the last IPL as well.  But today's decision boomeranged for them.  Shubman Gill (104) and Sai Sudarshan (103) scored a couple of outstanding centuries in the opening pair.  Both of them scored 210 runs for the first wicket.  Along with that, they almost broke the record of maximum runs in the opening pair in IPL.  Lucknow's de Kock and KL Rahul were unbeaten on 210 against Kolkata in 2022.



Two Gujarat batsmen could not break that record for a while.  They had to be content with the fourth highest partnership average in the IPL.  But the power of the two silenced the Chennai bowlers.  Shubman did not make it to the first 15 in the T20 World Cup team.  Today's century is his answer. He played sparkling shots all around the ground   He also celebrated in a very aggressive mood.  Just four balls after that, Sudarshan reached his breathtaking century by hitting a six.  His innings stopped just 4 runs away from the last IPL final hundred.  On this day, he stopped after completing his hundred . Sudharsan playing glorious shots with his typical elegance with a mixture of power and touch play that looked awesome and once again underlined his obvious talent and a possible India cap sooner than later .   But both went back to Tushar Deshpande in the 18th over.  After that not many  runs were scored in the last three overs.  In the end, Gujarat lost three wickets and stopped at 231 runs.


 Gujarat started the bowling well.  Chennai lost 3 wickets for just 10 runs rapidly in the powerplay.  Rahane, Rachin Ravindra and Ruturaj all failed as all three went in quick succession . Ravindra was run out for 1 , Rahane caught in front off Warrier for 1 and Ruturaj caught off the pull off Umesh Yadav for 0.  Daryl Mitchell (63) and Moeen Ali (56) made way for Chennai to return to the match after a series of batting disasters. They were involved in a 109 run stand that have CSK a glimmer of hope . Mitchell played some explosive shots while Moeen hit some glorious 6s but as soon as they returned in quick succession , the darkness of defeat descended on the Chennai camp.  Gujarat made the difference in the match with bat-ball and good fielding.  Jadeja (18) and Shivam Dubey (21) also scored but at best played cameos .  Dhoni Magic (26) could not recover the team in the last over as it was too late . Mohit Sharma once again proved successful with 3 wickets for Gujarat while Rashid Khan took 2 wickets . Chennai lost the match by 35 runs.  Despite remaining fourth in the league table, their consistency will be questioned.  Especially in the outfield and lack of penetration in the bowling in absence of Mustafizur and  Pathirana.  Gujarat's big win may have come too late but they somehow still have a remote possiblity to reach the playoffs .

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