Ahmedabad (Gujarat): Gujarat Titans became the first team to qualify for the playoffs in the Indian Premiere League 2023 edition after they beat Sunrisers Hyderabad on Monday night. Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya said that his team rightly deserved to be in the playoffs. GT had a convincing 34-run win over SRH.
Gujarat made 188 for nine in their allotted 20 overs with Shubhman Gill slamming 101 off just 58 balls, which was Gill's maiden IPL century. SRH's Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked up fiver to restrict Gujarat Titans under 200. On the other hand, SRH could only manage to reach 154/9 in 20 overs.
During the post-match presentation, Hardik said, "Very proud of the boys, two in two (making it to the play-offs twice in a row). The boys put their hands up and in challenging situations and we rightly deserve the playoff spot." It was important to focus within the group despite a lot of expectations, Hardik added.
Sai Sudharsan scored 47 runs off 36 balls. Gill and Sudharsan's 147-run partnership for the second wicket laid the foundation for a strong total. While Mohammad Shami and Mohit Sharma picked up four wickets each to cut short Hyderabad's campaign which impressed GT's captain- Hardik Pandya who called himself "a bowler's captain" and said that "Bowlers are very close to my heart." Sometimes batters take a lot of credit, for me I will always be a bowler's captain and ensure they get due credit that they very much deserve.
Smashing 13 fours and a six in his innings, Subhman Gill, the man-of-the-match said that his IPL debut was against SRH and now he has his IPL hundred against them. Gill also said, "I'm not the kind of person who dwells too much on my last innings. The focus is on what's needed at the moment. The most satisfying moment was to hit Abhishek (Sharma) for a six because he is my childhood friend."
Also read- Gill's maiden IPL ton powers GT into play-offs
Reckoning for a place in the play-offs, SRH captain Aiden Markram said that his team in its remaining two games will play for pride. "A lot of pride for us to play for. We'll try to give some opportunities if we're allowed to. It'll be nice to finish off the tournament in good spirits but unfortunately, we haven't been good enough in the tournament this year", he added.
