Kolkata: Gujarat Titans rode a dominating 50-ball 86 from Shubman Gill to inflict on Kolkata Knight Riders their fifth loss of this IPL with a five-wicket win at Ahmedabad on Friday. Cameron Green finally showed a glimpse of his potential with a 55-ball 79 in a weird innings that started and ended with a cluster of wickets and no momentum at all. Titans however consolidated a 57-run opening stand between Sai Sudharsan and Gill to complete the chase in the last over.
Stung by their consistent collapses while chasing, KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane chose to set a score so his batters wouldn’t face scoreboard pressure. But the start was once again insipid as Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi fell to pedestrian shots within two overs before Tim Seifert—who swapped places with compatriot Finn Allen—laboured to a 14-ball 19.
Green was also struggling, slowing to six runs off 12 balls at one point before picking up the pace by hitting 4, 6, 4 against Rashid Khan in the 12th over to signal a shift in KKR’s innings.
Khan kept dropping the ball short and Green kept pulling but by taking wickets at the other end, the home side ensured KKR never geared up their chase. They scored an incredible 111/2 between overs 7-15 but Green didn’t get enough strike in the last five overs, resulting in KKR scoring only 32 runs for the loss of five wickets.
Gill warmed up the chase with two consecutive boundaries off Kartik Tyagi in the second over but the game started going sideways for KKR in the third over when Anukul Roy was hit for three sixes by Gill and Sudharsan. Sunil Narine was economical as usual, starting with a five-run over but Gill’s class and ease at home had really started to show by then as he got under Vaibhav Arora’s skin by hitting him over the head for a six before pulling him over deep backward square leg for a four.
{{/usCountry}}Gill warmed up the chase with two consecutive boundaries off Kartik Tyagi in the second over but the game started going sideways for KKR in the third over when Anukul Roy was hit for three sixes by Gill and Sudharsan. Sunil Narine was economical as usual, starting with a five-run over but Gill’s class and ease at home had really started to show by then as he got under Vaibhav Arora’s skin by hitting him over the head for a six before pulling him over deep backward square leg for a four.
{{/usCountry}}Narine broke the opening stand by inducing a top-edge from Sudharsan, which Tyagi caught easily at short fine leg, but Jos Buttler came in and lofted him over cover for a four before taking the long-off route for a six. Varun Chakravarthy was welcomed with a first-ball six by Buttler but he changed the angle next over and this time the batter was caught at long-on. Gill, however, reached his fifty in 27 balls and was almost waltzing his way to a hundred before Green caught him brilliantly at the deep. By then though, the game was as good as over for KKR.