Mohali: Gujarat Titans roared back to winning ways with a six-wicket victory over Punjab Kings after Mohit Sharma's excellent return to the IPL and Shubman Gill's 49-ball 67 here on Thursday. Medium pacer Mohit marked his comeback with figures of 2/18 as holders GT restricted PBKS to 153 for eight.
Playing in his first game in the league since 2020, Mohit was exceptional in the penultimate over, giving away as little as six runs. When their turn to bat came, Gill led the way with his fine half-century as GT completed the chase of 154 in 19.5 overs, four days after suffering a heartbreaking loss to Kolkata Knight Riders.
Having done duty as the team's net bowler last season, Mohit, who has also played for the Indian team including in the World Cup, mixed his pace and varied his lengths well throughout his spell. Later, the young Gill once again showed his class with a quality innings that contained seven fours and a six.
From GT's point of view, it was extremely important that Gill stayed on till the end, especially after the dismissal of captain Hardik Pandya with the team still 48 runs away from their third victory in 34 balls. For PBKS, Matthew Short top-scored with a 24-ball 36 but it was Masood Shahrukh Khan's nine-ball 22, which helped the team cross 150.
GT were off to a flyer and scored 56 in the six powerplay overs with the Gill going great guns. Meanwhile, PBKS' lead pacer Kagiso Rabada became the fastest to 100 wickets in the IPL, when he had Wriddhiman Saha (30 off 19 balls) caught at deep square leg off a short ball.
The South Africa speedster took just 64 games to reach the landmark, six matches fewer than Lasith Malinga's 70. Earlier, sent in to bat after the coin landed in favour of the returning GT skipper Hardik, PBKS lost Prabhsimran Singh in the second ball of the over when his attempted flick off a length ball from Mohammed Shami went straight to Rashid Khan at short midwicket. Prabhsimran departed without scoring.
Short walked in at number three and he got off the mark with a boundary, striking the ball through point. The next ball was short, and Short pulled the seasoned India seamer through the square leg region for another four.
Sharing the new ball with Shami, Joshua Little was welcomed with two boundaries by the in-form Shikhar Dhawan. While the first one was lofted over cover, Dhawan produced a delightful shot in the next ball, caressing the ball past mid-off in what was a high-class cover drive.
Australia's Short, who has done well for Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League back home, took on Shami and hit him for back-to-back fours including an authoritative boundary through mid-off.
However, just when PBKS seemed to be putting GT under pressure Little gave his team a huge breakthrough, dismissing the dangerous Dhawan (8) who came down the track to play the lofted shot, only to end up giving a catch to Alzarri Joseph.
GT got another big wicket when the ever-reliable Rashid (1/26 in 4 overs) foxed a well-settled Short with a googly with PBKS's score reading 55 for three in the seventh over. Having struck a flurry of fours and a massive six off Joseph, Short had settled down nicely but looked clueless when Rashid decided to bowl the wrong'un.
Short's dismissal set PBKS a bit, and it became trickier when Jitesh Sharma (25 off 23 balls) was sent back by Mohit, thanks to a smart piece of work by Wriddhiman behind the wickets. Sam Curran (22) struck a much-needed six -- a big maximum over deep midwicket after star leg-spinner Rashid missed his length.
Sri Lankan Bhanuka Rajapaksa did not convince in his 26-ball 20, until his stay in the middle was cut short by Joseph. Shahrukh Khan smashed the first ball he faced for a six over deep midwicket, before picking up another maximum off Shami. (PTI)
IPL SCOREBOARD: GT vs PBKS
Gujarat Titans:
Wriddhiman Saha c Short b Rabada 30
Shubman Gill b Curran 67
Sai Sudharsan c Prabhsimran Singh b Arshdeep Singh 19
Hardik Pandya c Curran b Harpreet Brar 8
David Miller not out 17
Rahul Tewatia not out 5
Extras: (LB-8) 8
Total: (For 4 wickets in 19.5 overs) 154
Fall of wickets: 1-48, 2-89, 3-106, 4-148
Bowling: Arshdeep Singh 4-0-33-1, Kagiso Rabada 4-0-36-1, Harpreet Brar 4-0-20-1, Sam Curran 3.5-0-25-1, Rahul Chahar 3-0-24-0, Matthew Short
1-0-8-0.
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Innings report:
Mohit shines on IPL return as Gujarat Titans restrict Punjab Kings to 153-8
Mohali: Medium pacer Mohit Sharma marked his return to the IPL with excellent figures of 2/18 as holders Gujarat Titans restricted Punjab Kings to 153 for eight here on Thursday. Playing in his first game in the league since 2020, Mohit was exceptional in the penultimate over, giving away as little as six runs.
Matthew Short top-scored with a 24-ball 36, but it was Masood Shahrukh Khan's nine-ball 22 that helped PBKS cross 150. Sent in to bat after the coin landed in favour of the returning Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya, PBKS lost Prabhsimran Singh in the second ball of the over when his attempted flick off a length ball from Mohammed Shami went straight to Rashid Khan at short midwicket. Prabhsimran departed without scoring.
Short walked in at number three and he got off the mark with a boundary, striking the ball through point. The next ball was short, and Short pulled the seasoned India seamer through the square leg region for another four.
Sharing the new ball with Shami, Joshua Little was welcomed with two boundaries by the in-form Shikhar Dhawan. While the first one was lofted over cover, Dhawan produced a delightful shot in the next ball, caressing the ball past mid-off in what was a high-class cover drive.
Australia's Short, who has done well for Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League back home, took on Shami and hit him for back-to-back fours including an authoritative boundary through mid-off. However, just when PBKS seemed to be putting GT under pressure Little gave his team a huge breakthrough, dismissing the dangerous Dhawan (8) who came down the track to play the lofted shot, only to end up giving a catch to Alzarri Joseph.
Defending champions Gujarat Titans got another big wicket when the ever-reliable Rashid (1/26 in 4 overs) foxed a well-settled Short with a googly with PBKS's score reading 55 for three in the seventh over. Having struck a flurry of fours and a massive six off Joseph, Short had settled down nicely but looked clueless when Rashid decided to bowl the wrong'un.
Short's dismissal set PBKS a bit, and it became trickier when Jitesh Sharma (25 off 23 balls) was sent back by Mohit, thanks to a smart piece of work by Wriddhiman Saha behind the wickets. Sam Curran (22) struck a much-needed six -- a big maximum over deep midwicket after star leg-spinner Rashid missed his length.
Sri Lankan Bhanuka Rajapaksa did not convince in his 26-ball 20, until his stay in the middle was cut short by Joseph. Shahrukh Khan smashed the first ball he faced for a six over deep midwicket, before picking up another maximum off Shami.
IPL SCOREBOARD: GT vs PBKS
Punjab Kings
Prabhsimran Singh c Rashid Khan b Shami 0
Shikhar Dhawan c Alzarri Joseph b Joshua Little 8
Matthew Short b Rashid Khan 36
Bhanuka Rajapaksa c Shubman Gill b Alzarri Joseph 20
Jitesh Sharma c W Saha b Mohit Sharma 25
Sam Curran c Shubman Gill b Mohit Sharma 22
Shahrukh Khan run out 22
Harpreet Brar not out 8
Rishi Dhawan run out 1
Extras: (lb-2, w-9) 11
Total: 153/8 in 20 overs
Fall of wickets: 0-1, 28-2, 55-3, 92-4, 115-5, 136-6, 152-7, 153-8
Bowling: Mohammed Shami 4-0-44-1, Joshua Little 4-0-31-1, Alzarri Joseph 4-0-32-1, Rashid Khan 4-0-26-1, Mohit Sharma 4-0-18-2.
Brief scores:
Punjab Kings: 153 for 8 in 20 overs (Matthew Short 36; Mohit Sharma 2/18).
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- When the openers Prabhsimran Singh (0) and Shikhar Dhawan (8) couldn't provide the start that KKR was hoping for, Matthew Short (36) and Jitesh Sharma (25) came to the rescue in the middle. However, both of them were cut short by some impeccable bowling by Gujarat Titans. Singh was bowled by Mohammad Shami while Dhawan was dismissed by Joshua Little. Short was clueless to Rashid Khan's google and was clean-bowled as he was looking to prolong his score. Jitesh was removed by Mohit Sharma.
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Mohali: Gujarat Titans (GT) on Thursday won the toss and elected to field against Punjab Kings (PBKS) side here at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium.
Here's what the captains of the respective teams had to say:
Shikhar Dhawan: Doesn't bother us. Were looking to bowl first. We have been playing good cricket. Quite normal to go through this in cricket. Won't be the first time or the last (loss against SRH). Looking forward to put up a great show. Two changes - Rabada coming in for Nathan. Bhanuka coming in for Raza.
Hardik Pandya: Bowling first. Just looks like a good wicket, and from whatever I've seen it's good to chase. Was a one-in-a-million defeat. We are a kind of team that takes it with a smile. Played good cricket until that last over. It happens. It's a fresh game. We'll come out and smile, and throw some punches. I don't know (any changes?). It's there in the paper.
Pitch Report: The pitch is heaven for the batting side while bowlers will need to maintain tight line and length, else they could be gone for the cleaners quite easily. There is a slight cover of grass on the strip and the ground is large, meaning the batter would have to do the running between the wickets quite often which would earn them their runs.
Teams:
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Prabhsimran Singh, Shikhar Dhawan(c), Matthew Short, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Jitesh Sharma(w), Sam Curran, Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Kagiso Rabada, Rishi Dhawan, Arshdeep Singh
Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Wriddhiman Saha(w), Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Hardik Pandya(c), David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Alzarri Joseph, Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma, Joshua Little
