Shubman Gill’s 96 and last over heroics from all-rounder Rahul Tewatia ensured Gujarat remain the only team to have not lost a match yet in the ongoing Indian T20 Cricket League 2022.
The new team in the tournament handed Punjab a five-wicket loss in the Match No 16 played at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Friday night following some incredible batting performances by Shubman Gill and Rahul Tewatia.
Gujarat needed 19 runs from the last 6 balls as Rahul Tewatia hammered the final 2 deliveries of the match over the ropes to seal a thrilling victory for his side, which propelled them to the second spot in the points table for the ongoing Indian T20 Cricket League 2022 tournament.
Rahul Tewatia remained unbeaten on a 3-ball 13 with the help of 2 sixes whereas David Miller was at the other end when the winning runs were hit in a contest that looked tilted in favour of Punjab after the Mayank Agarwal-led team posted 189/9 batting first.
But Shubman Gill led a strong reply for Gujarat, carrying on his rich form with the bat but the young Indian batting star fell agonisingly short of his maiden, deserving century of the season, by just 4 runs.
Shubman Gill batted almost throughout the innings for Gujarat to make 96 of only 59 balls with the help of 11 boundaries and a six — his 12th fifty in the tournament history — anchoring the chase for his side while also keeping the scoreboard ticking.
Despite his heroics with the bat, Shubman Gill could not keep Gujarat in a comfortable reach of the target towards the ending stages of the game, and his dismissal on the penultimate ball of the penultimate over from Kagiso Rabada tilted the scales heavily in favour of Punjab.
The final over of the match from Odean Smith was full of drama as Gujarat captain Hardik Pandya was run out on the first ball with David Miller being at the wrong end of the call.
Rahul Tewatia took a single on the second ball to give strike to David Miller, who hit a 4 on the third ball and took a single on the fourth ball to bring the Indian all-rounder back on strike.
Rahul Tewatia did what he knows best — get in the line of the ball and swing his bat hard and luckily for Gujarat, he was able to connect with the ball from the middle of the bat not once but twice.
Gujarat Titans finished at 190/4 from their 20 overs in reply to Punjab's total of 189/9. The victory gave Gujarat an overall 6 points and a second spot in the points table behind Kolkata, who have a better net run rate of 1.102 than the Hardik Pandya-led team’s 0.349.
The outrageous hitting by Rahul Tewatia towards the end of the match did take some sheen off the hard work done by Shubman Gill throughout the innings, but nevertheless, both the knocks were equally important.
The Indian opening batsman Shubman Gill displayed tremendous control and power in his strokes, hitting 11 boundaries in the process along with a six to follow up his score of 84 in the previous match with an even bigger score.
For Gujarat, debutant batsman Sai Sudharsan was impressive scoring 35 from 30 balls with the help of 4 boundaries and a six where as Hardik Pandya cracked 5 boundaries to make 27 from 18 balls.
Sai Sudharsan gave a fine example of himself as he teamed up with senior batsman Shubman Gill to add 101 runs for the second wicket, after Gujarat lost their wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Wade following a 32-run opening wicket stand.
Earlier in the match, Liam Livingstone fired with the bat once again as his whirlwind knock of 64 from only 27 balls — studded with 4 sixes and 7 boundaries – powered Punjab to a strong total of 189/9 in their 20 overs.
Mayank Agarwal continued to endure a hard time with the bat in the middle as the Punjab captain was dismissed for only 5 whereas the debutant Jonny Bairstow was bounced out by Gujarat and New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson for 8.
However, a strong association for 52 runs between Shikhar Dhawan and Liam Livingstone helped Punjab revive from the earlier blows whereas a 38-run stand between the English all-rounder and Jitesh Sharma helped Punjab stretch their recovery phase.
Towards the end of the Punjab innings, Livingston partnered with Shahrukh Khan to add 29 runs from just 13 balls whereas the last pair of Rahul Chahar and Arshdeep Singh did well to add another 27 runs to their team’s total.
Punjab, who slipped to the 5th spot in the points table for the ongoing Indian T20 Cricket League 2022, will next be seen in action against Mumbai on April 13 whereas Gujarat will take on the struggling Hyderabad side on April 11.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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