Gujarat Titans (GT) now have one foot in the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) playoffs after a comfortable win over the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday, May 7.
LSG stand-in skipper Krunal Pandya won the toss and elected to bowl first. GT's opening pair of Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha took the LSG bowlers to the cleaners and scored 78 runs in the powerplay. The duo went on to post the second-highest opening partnership of the season and fell narrowly short of the 150-mark.
Wriddhiman Saha scored 81 runs off 43 deliveries to give GT an excellent platform to build on. Gill took on the initiative following the fall of the first wicket and a couple of cameos from Hardik Pandya and David Miller took their score to an imposing 227-2 in the first innings.
LSG made a blazing start to the run chase with their new opening pair of Quinton de Kock and Kyle Mayers. The overseas duo put on 88 runs for the first wicket, out of which 72 came in the powerplay.
However, the visitors could not make most of the start and lost their way in the middle overs. De Kock scored a brilliant 70 on his return but lacked support from the middle-order batters. They eventually ended with 171-7 and fell 56 runs short of the target.
IPL 2023 Orange Cap updated list
Shubman Gill notched the highest IPL score of his career, but agonizingly fell short of his maiden ton in the tournament. The opening batter remained unbeaten on 94 runs off 51 deliveries, taking his season tally to 469 runs in 11 matches, which propels him to the second spot in the rankings.
Kyle Mayers gave LSG a bright start to the run chase with his 48 runs off just 32 deliveries. His knock came to an end courtesy of a brilliant catch by Rashid Khan in the ninth over. The Caribbean all-rounder now has 355 runs at a strike rate of 155 and is ranked seventh in the Orange Cap race.
IPL 2023 Purple Cap updated list
Mohammed Shami is the new holder of the Purple Cap after spell against LSG. The right-arm pacer finished with figures of 1-37, where he took the wicket of Deepak Hooda. He now has 19 wickets in 11 matches at an economy rate of 7.23.
Rashid Khan proved to be expensive in his first over of the powerplay, but bounced back to end with figures of 1-34. The leg-spinner claimed the wicket of Quinton de Kock off the last ball of his spell to take his tally to 19 wickets at an economy rate of 8.09.
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