Skipper Shubman Gill led from the front with a fluent half-century after Mohammed Siraj’s fiery spell of 4/17 set the tone for Gujarat Titans’ commanding seven-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their IPL clash on Sunday.
Sent at No. 4, Washington Sundar made a strong impact with a brisk 49 off 29 balls as GT notched up their third win in four games, while SRH slumped to their fourth loss in five matches.
The chase of 153 was completed with as many as 20 balls to spare, with Gill making an unbeaten 61 off 43 balls.
Bowling first, GT restricted SHR to 152 for eight with left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore (2/24) and seamer Prasidh Krishna (2/25) too performing admirably on a slow surface.
Mohammed Shami (2/28) and Pat Cummins (1/26) brought SRH back into the contest with their early strikes as GT found themselves at a tricky 16 for two in the fourth over.
B Sai Sudharsan (5) could not keep his shot down and was caught at square leg off Shami, and Cummins then dismissed Jos Buttler for a three-ball duck with a back of a length delivery that nipped back in sharply, and Heinrich Klaasen did the rest behind the stumps.
The two wickets gave SRH a glimmer of hope but skipper Shubman Gill and Washington Sundar joined forces to stitch a third-wicket partnership of 90 runs to pave the way for their team's win.
Helping the GT duo to get their innings up and running after the early wobble was a horrendous sixth over from pacer Simarjeet Singh, who conceded 20 runs to ease the pressure on the visitors.
Simarjeet was guilty of repeatedly bowling short and Washington took full advantage of it by pulling and hooking him for two sixes over fine leg after collecting two fours.
Gill was all class reaching his half-century in 36 balls with the help of some delightful shots but Washington got out one short of what would have been a well-deserved fifty.
A flurry of boundaries from Sherfane Rutherford (35 not out off 16 balls) then helped GT finish the game with plenty to spare.
Earlier, Siraj dismissed struggling openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma cheaply before coming back to add two more wickets to his tally.
Head (8) had a fortuitous start as his edge off Siraj went past the stumps for a boundary.
However, Siraj had the last laugh as the pacer got rid of the danger man from Australia when the opener flicked one for Sai Sudharsan to complete a smart diving catch at mid-wicket.
The crowd at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium found their voice after a few boundaries.
Siraj, however, had other ideas as the pumped-up seamer sent back Abhishek after the batter took the aerial route but failed to get the timing right and was caught at mid-on.
This meant the SRH openers' struggles continued in this edition of the IPL as the side reached 45 for two at the end of the power play.
Even as the visitors dominated proceedings at that stage, they faced some anxious moments when Glenn Phillips got injured. After being attended to by the physio, Phillips hobbled off the field.
Ishan Kishan (17) perished when he miscued a pull off a Prasidh Krishna short ball to deep square leg where Ishant completed the catch.
The duo of Nitish Kumar Reddy (31 off 34 balls) and Klaasen (27 off 19 balls) tried to revive SRH innings with a fifty-run stand for the fourth wicket, a phase where GT got a few fours and a six by the South African big-hitter against Rashid Khan.
But just when SRH looked like laying the foundation for a respectable score, left-arm spinner Sai Kishore picked up the prized wicket of Klaasen whose leg stump was disturbed as he rocked back to employ the pull shot.
Reddy too perished while trying to smash Sai Kishore out of the park, leaving SRH at 105 for five in the beginning of the 16th over.
(With inputs from PTI)
Playing XI
Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill (capt), Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler (wk), Rahul Tewatia, Shahrukh Khan, Rashid Khan, Washington Sundar, R Sai Kishore, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Aniket Verma, Kamindu Mendis, Pat Cummins (capt), Zeeshan Ansari, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammed Shami
Impact players:
Gujarat Titans: Sherfane Rutherford, Glenn Phillips, Anuj Rawat, Mahipal Lomror, Arshad Khan
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhinav Manohar, Sachin Baby, Simarjeet Singh, Rahul Chahar, Wiaan Mulder