The Hardik Pandya-led Gujarat Titans seem to have resumed normal services after a bit of a stutter against Kolkata Knight Riders as they defeated Punjab Kings by six wickets at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali on Thursday, April 13.
Hardik, who was missing in the clash against Kolkata Knight Riders came back to lead his team and was lucky with the flip of the coin and asked Shikhar Dhawan to put a score on the board. Punjab Kings (PBKS) were in a spot of bother immediately as they were dented up front.
Opener Prabhsimran Singh, who has been quite impressive in the ongoing IPL thus far got out for a rare duck and he was soon followed into the dugout by skipper Shikhar Dhawan as the latter got out at an individual score of 8.
Middle order and lower middle order batters of PBKS got starts but none of them could really capitalise on the same and it cost the home side as they were behind the eight ball right from the outset. PBKS could eventually manage just 153 for the loss of eight wickets.
During the chase, Shubman Gill batted well and scored a match-winning fifty to win the contest for the defending champions. JioCinema IPL expert Aakash Chopra was fairly amused by the batting effort of Gill and heaped praise on the youngster after the game.
“You’ll see pure cricket shots from him. The pitch was nice, no doubt about that. You’re not chasing a large total, that’s also true. Whenever you see him, you think being strong technically will also help you in T20 cricket. It liberates you. It doesn’t box you in, instead, it gives you freedom. You can succeed by playing perfect cricket, we’ve seen this from Virat Kohli and now we’re seeing him do it too,” said Chopra on JioCinema.
It was Gill who dazzled with the willow during the chase but the foundation of the win was laid down by Titans’ pacer Mohit Sharma, who replace Yash Dayal in the playing XI for the game. Mohit bowled with a lot of control and ended up conceding only 18 runs in four overs and also bagged a wicket. Anil Kumble seemed fairly impressed with the pacer and lauded him for his control.
“He was prepared. He has enough variations to manage within four overs and he was excellent. After the last game, where they had to find an experienced bowler to bowl at the death, they realized it was Mohit Sharma. It’s wonderful to see him pick up Man of the Match,” mentioned Kumble on JioCinema.
After the match went in GT’s favour, it was Mohit Sharma who walked away with the Player of the Match award and that came as a surprise to many including Aakash Chopra, who mentioned that Gill could have been awarded the honour.
“If I could make the decision to award the Player of the Match, I would have given it to Shubman Gill. He’s the only person to hit a half-century. We can talk about how flat of a pitch it was as much as we want, we didn’t see 200 runs scored nor did we see 150 runs chased down easily.
“If the match result says the bowlers enjoyed more than the batters, our perception doesn’t matter. Both teams played the match and only one player made a half-century, he should be awarded Man of the Match.”