The Qualifier 2 of the Indian Premier League 2023 witnessed defending champions Gujarat Titans knocking five-time champions Mumbai Indians out of the championship race. Before Mohit Sharma took a five-wicket haul during Mumbai’s chase, Shubman Gill’s magnificent century set the tone for the Hardik Pandya-led side.
Gill continued his top form and helped his side Gujarat win yet another game. After being put to bat first at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Gujarat Titans posted a mammoth 233/3, the highest-ever total registered in the history of IPL Playoffs. Gill contributed with his 60-ball 129 and notched up his third ton of this season and the second at this venue in IPL 2023.
Gill received plaudits from Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, and Nitish Rana for his sensational knock against the Mumbai Indians, and the youngster also joined Virat Kohli in the elite list of players with the most centuries in a single edition of the cash-rich tournament.
Kohli, who is currently in London preparing for the World Test Championship 2023 final, took to his Instagram story to share a picture of Gill and added a star emoticon, as he fondly calls him ‘sitara’ meaning star. Rishabh Pant too shared a picture of Gill celebrating his century, captioning it “Classs babaa”. Nitish Rana took to his Twitter handle, calling Gill ‘GOAT’ (Greatest of all time).
Virat-Kohli’s-Instagram-StoryRishabh-Pant’s-Instagram-Story.
GT to face CSK in IPL 2023 Final
With the win, Gujarat Titans confirmed their finale spot. The IPL 2023 will come a full circle as the summit clash will witness the two teams that played the curtain raiser this year- that is Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans. The MS Dhoni-led side defeated GT in the Qualifier 1 to directly make it to the final.
Meanwhile, GT crossed all hurdles to become the third team in IPL history, after CSK and MI, to make it to two consecutive finals. While CSK made it to the finals in 2010 and 2011, MI repeated the same in 2019 and 2020. Both MI and CSK win those respective seasons and are currently the only two teams to have won the IPL twice. If Gujarat succeed in winning the cup this year, they will become the third team to win back-to-back IPL trophies.