Gujarat Titans 137 for 3 (Saha 67*, Pathirana 2-24) beat Chennai Super Kings 133 for five (Gaikwad 53, Jagadeesan 39*, Shami 2-19) by seven wickets
At the beginning of the season, the discuss was that they had been an inexperienced crew with out correct squad steadiness. Their preliminary wins had been put all the way down to newbies’ luck, or plain outdated luck. But because the league stage of IPL 2022 has chugged alongside, the Gujarat Titans juggernaut has rolled on, and with their tenth win in 13 video games, Hardik Pandya’s aspect, on Sunday afternoon, grew to become the primary crew to be assured of a prime-two end.
The final time they met Chennai Super Kings, Titans wanted David Miller and Rashid Khan to drag off a heist to take them dwelling from a tough place. This time, Titans bossed an underwhelming Super Kings via the entire sport. Titans didn’t experiment with their XI, whereas Super Kings gave some new faces a go, and in the long run, the crew in kind proved too sizzling for MS Dhoni’s inexperienced XI.
They misplaced simply 5 wickets, however scored solely 133. Dhoni stated on the toss that Super Kings would bat first in order that they would not need to area within the warmth, however maybe there was an antagonistic impact on the batters. Ruturaj Gaikwad made 53, however took 49 deliveries, failing to drag off the large photographs after an preliminary burst within the powerplay. When he was out within the sixteenth over, he regarded exhausted, and in partnerships with Moeen Ali and N Jagadeesan, he usually appeared to accept ones that would have been twos in much less oppressive situations.
Moeen got here in at No. 3 and hit Rashid Khan for 2 sixes within the sixth over, however fell for a 17-ball 21 within the ninth over after misreading the tempo out of left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore’s hand.
Jagadeesan confronted the very best of Rashid and Alzarri Joseph within the center overs, failing to vary the innings’ gears, and after Gaikwad and Shivam Dube fell in fast succession, the Super Kings innings fizzled out.
They struck no boundaries within the final 5 overs, and picked up simply 24 runs in that interval, among the many worst-case situations for a batting aspect with 5 wickets within the bag. Rashid conceded simply 14 off his final three overs, Shami collected a second wicket, and Yash Dayal got here again sturdy after a 15-run opening over.
Super Kings wanted an early wicket, and Mukesh Choudhary – tied with Shami firstly of the innings for essentially the most powerplay wickets (11) – went full to Wriddhiman Saha in quest of motion. Saha started with two streaky boundaries off Choudhary, and within the subsequent over was almost caught out off the identical bowler, however survived after Gaikwad dropped him on 21.
Saha didn’t rein in his strokeplay after the reprieve, and shortly pulled Simarjeet Singh for the primary six of the innings. After 5 overs, Titans had been 45 for no loss and Shubman Gill had solely scored 7 off 7.
Super Kings wanted one other fast wicket, however that didn’t come as Matthew Wade settled in with Saha for a useful 31-run stand. Moeen picked off Wade within the twelfth over and Hardik grew to become Pathirana’s second IPL scalp, however with solely 37 runs wanted in 43 balls, the Titans remained effectively forward within the contest.
The good finish for the Titans can be for Saha to hold his bat, and he did simply that, knocking the ball round to achieve his third fifty of the season, after which hit the profitable runs off the primary ball of the ultimate over to complete with 67 off 57 balls. Miller scored a sedate 20-ball 15 to chaperone the crew dwelling from the opposite finish.
Sreshth Shah is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @sreshthx