"Ek hi to dil hai Gill, kitni baar jeetoge" - Aakash Chopra lauds Shubman Gill's match-winning knock in GT-LSG IPL 2022 clash

Aakash Chopra has lauded Shubman Gill for playing a match-winning knock in Tuesday's (May 10) IPL 2022 encounter between the Gujarat Titans (GT) and the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).

Gill scored an unbeaten 63 off 49 deliveries as the Titans posted a fighting score of 144/4. Their bowlers then bowled out KL Rahul's side for 82 to win the match by a handsome 62-run margin.

While reviewing the GT-LSG clash in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra acknowledged that it seemed at one stage that Shubman Gill's slightly conservative knock might not help his IPL team's cause. He explained:

"Ek hi to dil hai Gill, kitni baar jeetoge. He scored a half-century, which seemed at one point that it was a very slow half-century. If you play the entire innings, stay unbeaten till the end and you score only 63 runs in total, it seems at times that you haven't done a good job, you haven't really batted for your team, you have batted against your team but that was not the case."

However, the cricketer-turned-commentator pointed out that the Gujarat Titans probably read the surface and paced their innings accordingly. Chopra elaborated:

"This team did not show any urgency. I think it was already there in their minds that 140-plus is the right total to score, if we score more than that then fine, but if we reach there, that should be enough."

The Pune surface assisted both the pacers and the spinners, with the ball seaming as well as turning. Shubman Gill even pointed out that the LSG bowlers bowled slightly on the shorter side, which helped the GT batters' cause.

Click here to find out which is the next match in the IPL schedule 2022.

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"He was given a chance on zero" - Aakash Chopra on Shubman Gill surviving a few close calls

Shubman Gill almost ran himself out at the start of his innings [P/C: iplt20.com]

Aakash Chopra highlighted that Gill led a charmed life in the initial stages of the GT innings. He observed:

"Gill was good. You score 144/4, Gill came as an opener and he was given a chance on zero, he was dropped. After that, another run-out chance and he survives that as well. Then one more time he leaves Hardik halfway, he also survives. There were so many run-out chances because runs were not getting scored easily."

While pointing out that Gill could have accelerated a little earlier, the 44-year-old still gave the GT opener full marks for the knock he played. Chopra said:

"Shubman Gill played very well after the initial hiccups. He plays a good pull shot, that's his quality. One thing I observed was that he just accelerated after 50, you can do that after 45 as well, cricket is so much attached to milestones, at times you feel it is unfair. But you will have to give him 100% for this knock."

Gill reached his fifty off 42 deliveries. He hit the next two deliveries he faced for boundaries but was mostly away from the strike thereafter.