CHENNAI: A punishing half-century by B Sai Sudharsan (87) and Kagiso Rabada's penetrative bowling (3/25 in 4 overs) came in handy for Gujarat Titans to beat Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets in their IPL match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday. Set a target of 159 to win, the visitors achieved the same with 3.2 overs to spare.
GT captain Shubman Gill was aware that the target was achievable and thus played with a lot of confidence. He set the tempo by scoring effortlessly off all the CSK bowlers and his boundaries came off from the meat of the blade. When well set for a half-century, he was done in by a change of pace as he fell to the guile of the accurate Noor Ahmad, to be stumped by Sanju Samson. By then Gill and Sai Sudharsan had added 58 runs for the first wicket.
After that Sai Sudharsan took control of the proceedings and along with Jos Buttler stitched a good stand worth 97 runs in 60 balls for the second wicket, that helped the visitors win in style.
"I feel very grateful, to be honest, and coming back home, I'm very happy. I don't have a lot of words to say, but overwhelmed and really enjoyed the crowd today, I was very happy playing at home. To be honest, just getting the confidence from the last innings and keeping this innings as fresh as possible, not thinking that we have got runs or not got runs the way we are feeling. I'm trying to look at it as just a confidence point where I can take some from the last innings and use it for the next innings. I'm not looking whether I'm scoring or not. Just looking at how the game played out," said Sai Sudharsan after the match.
"I felt it (conditions in the second innings) slightly got better, but the first six overs still it was a little difficult to play with. First few innings I was not in the best rhythm, but once I got the rhythm, it is happening naturally," he added.
A single to backward square leg off Noor ringed in Sai's 50. But the pick of Sai's innings was a six off a short one from Akeal Hosein, where he had the time to kneel down and slog it into the stands over fine leg. This six also brought about the 50-run partnership between him and Buttler.
Sai once again showed his class by carting Noor straight over the bowler's head for a six into the sight screen. This six showed his confidence, timing and sense of shot selection, which the CSK top order lacked.
Well, for CSK barring Ruturaj Gaikwad, who remained unbeaten on 74 off 60 balls, none of the batters showed intent and all got out due to poor shot selection. Ruturaj played along with the line of the ball and used his timing to score runs, while the rest perished while playing across the line.
CSK were at one stage 37 for 4 in 8.2 overs and from then on Ruturaj stayed till the end to help his team post a respectable score. Put in to bat, CSK openers Sanju Samson and Ruturaj first wanted to have a feel of the surface and applied themselves. Rabada bowled with a lot of fire and zest as the wicket had good bounce and carry. The South African just gave one run in his first over.
The CSK openers, however, negotiated the pace of Siraj easily and scored two boundaries each. But it was Rabada's second over that put the hosts in a spot of bother as the Johannesburg-born player accounted for Sanju and Urvil Patel in a space of three balls.
Samson went for a wild slash to a short of length ball pitched outside off stump, without moving his body, which landed as an outside edge into Butler behind the stumps. Soon Urvil danced down the pitch to play the pull shot and was done in by pace. The top edge was held at mid-on by Jason Holder. This dismissal upset CSK's calculations and they sent Sarfaraz Khan as impact sub. This move proved to be a disaster as Sarfaraz got out to Siraj the very first ball he faced.
CSK were in a spot of bother having lost three wickets within a space of eight balls. The scoreboard read 26 for three and the new man in, Dewald Brevis, was under huge pressure to do the rescue act along with his skipper Ruturaj. The South African star batter eventually fell to the guile of Manav Suthar.
Full marks for Gujarat captain Gill for shuffling his bowlers well and applying the pressure throughout on the opposition. Gill did not rest Rabada or Siraj after two overs each as he normally does. Since the wicket was helping both of them he gave them three overs each and thus put pressure on the opposition.
After that Ruturaj and Shivam Dube did a mini rescue act. Ruturaj was in his element and struck Arshad Khan for two boundaries to reduce the pressure a bit. Gill then introduced Rashid Khan into the attack and the move backfired as the over yielded 21 runs including five byes.
Brief scores: CSK 158/7 in 20 ovs (Ruturaj 74 n.o; Rabada 3/25, Arshad 2/43) lost to GT 162/2 in 16.4 ovs (Sai Sudharsan 87, Buttler 39 n.o).