Noor Ahmad, Mohit Sharma and former Sunriser Rashid Khan suffocated the big-hitting team in orange to keep them down to a below-par score, and as the surface got better in the evening, the Titans rode on contributions from Shubman Gill, Sai Sudarshan and David Miller to see them through. Mohit Sharma was able to turn the tables from IPL 2023 finals horrific 2 balls to heroic 3-fer.
A disciplined performance with the ball especially by Mohit Sharma and two Afghan spinners and a collective show with the bat, headlined by David Miller’s return to form, helped Gujarat Titans bounce back from the loss against Chennai Super Kings as they registered a seven-wicket victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday.
Pitch and Toss.
“It’s a warm afternoon here in Ahmedabad. Dimensions – if I am looking to cut/punch through the off-side – 66 meters, dab towards third man – that’s 58 meters, pull/hook – 63 meters, scoop – 53 meters and down the ground – that’s 73 meters. On the surface, this looks a very good pitch. Looks like a batting beauty. It’s an absolute road, it looks like a tremendous wicket. There’s quite a nice breeze flowing across the ground, so that might help the players tremendously.
It’s going to reach 38 or 40 degrees here. In the day games played here, teams batting first have scored 200, once it was defended and on another occasion it wasn’t.
We’ve got Sunrisers Hyderabad up here. Sunrisers are gonna come here and they are gonna look at this wicket and they are going to think, ‘maybe we can get 270 again.’ There’s an even covering of grass, it’s a beautiful, beautiful wicket. In spite of this being a big stadium, plenty of runs here. You can chase down a big score. One thing the groundsman said, it’s black soil, moisture doesn’t stay too long, it’s a good surface to bat.” reckons Ravi Shastri and Kevin Pietersen
Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Pat Cummins have won the toss and have opted to bat with no changes in the winning team.
Shubman Gill bowling first had two changes Noor Ahmad comes in for (Spencer Johnson) and Darshan Nalkande comes in for Sai Kishore.
Sunrisers starts off to flyer.
They continued from where they left off in the last game, with Travis Head and Mayank Agarwal striking five fours between them to help SRH off to a positive start. Agarwal, though, was dismissed playing the pull shot for the third time in as many innings, with Azmatullah Omarzai providing the breakthrough. Abhishek Sharma, who scored the fastest half-century for SRH in the last game, extended his good form as he struck two sixes off Rashid Khan to help SRH race to 56/1 at the end of the powerplay.
Noor Ahmed , Rashid Khan rock Sunrisers
An afternoon start in Ahmedabad promised a dry surface with help for spinners, and that’s why Cummins wanted Sunrisers to make first use of the pitch. Expecting the same, the Titans dropped fast bowler Spencer Johnson to give left-arm wrist spinner Noor his first outing of the season.
Noor struck in his first over when he got a googly to rattle Travis Head’s stumps right after the powerplay before the opener could do heavy damage. Noor’s googly was particularly effective on this surface. He bowled 13 of them and only conceding ten runs. His spell of 1 for 32, numbers partly ruined by some late hits from Sunrisers, gave Titans their first foothold in this game.
Noor’s bowling also lifted his senior Afghanistan team-mate Rashid, who conceded 49 against Chennai Super Kings in his last game and started Sunday’s spell with a 15-run over courtesy Abhishek Sharma’s twin sixes.
However, Rashid returned strongly to keep Heinrich Klaasen relatively quiet, and eventually he took him out as well, a skiddy leg break going on to shatter the stumps in the 14th over. Rashid then made an equal contribution next over in Aiden Markram’s dismissal when he dived forward to complete a difficult catch running in from long-on. He finished with 1 for 33 and apart from that catch, also played a role in Abdul Samad’s run-out in the final over.
The pitch got slower as the innings progressed and GT took full advantage of that, using their spinners and change of pace from the quicks to apply the brakes. Noor Ahmad had Head bowled for 19 and sneaked in tight overs along with Rashid Khan. Abhishek, meanwhile, used the DRS to reverse a caught-behind decision and ended a boundary drought that lasted for 20 deliveries.
But his innings ended thanks to Mohit Sharma’s change of pace as he handed a catch to cover. With Aiden Markram not able to hit the straps, Heinrich Klaasen tried to provide some momentum, striking a couple of sixes off Noor. But Klaasen was bowled by Rashid trying to play across the line and Markram fell soon after, to Umesh Yadav. Abdul Samad ended the 15th over with two fours, taking SRH to 122/5.
Mohit Sharma leaves Sunrisers short as Abdul Samad guides SRH to 162 for 8
Darshan Nalkande, playing his first game of the season, bowled an economical 16th over as he conceded only six. Samad struck a straight four off Rashid’s last ball followed by a six off Mohit. He also got a lucky break, put down by Umesh in the deep off Nalkande, and the bowler was also struck for a six by Shahbaz Ahmed. Mohit provided the perfect finish, bagging the wickets of Shahbaz and impact sub Washington Sundar while Samad was run out off the final ball, with only three runs coming off the final over.
The start of the chase by GT Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman set pace for GT innings.
Wriddhiman Saha and Shubman Gill provided a brisk start for SRH, trying to capitalize as much as possible in the powerplay. The openers struck two fours between them and Saha also hit a couple of sixes – one each off Shahbaz and Unadkat. The left-arm spinner got a change of ends and the move worked as he had Saha hand a simple catch to mid on. In the same over, Gill sent one over extra cover for his first six and Sudarshan got a four off Bhuvneshwar Kumar as GT finished with 52/1 in the powerplay.
SRH spinners apply the brakes
Markande and Washington Sundar bowled in tandem for a few overs and cut out the boundaries before Gill got one off Washington. But Markande bagged the big wicket of the skipper in the next over as the batter failed to clear Samad at long on, leaving GT at 78/2 at the halfway stage.
SRH captain Cummins finally brought himself into the attack in the 11th over and gave away only five runs. With the boundaries drying up again, Sudarshan broke the shackles with a drive over Unadkat’s head for a four and followed it up with a superbly-placed shot past short third man off Cummins. Bhuvneshwar gave away only six runs in the 15th over, as the required rate rose close to 10 but Miller handled it well in the end
David Miller puts finishing touch and took GT over the line
The year 2024 has been a forgettable one for Miller after two fantastic years of T20 cricket. Coming into the game, he had a strike rate of 119, his lowest in 13 years, and his struggles looked to surface when he could not find a boundary in his first 16 deliveries. But then came a small break as Miller got some treatment for a niggle. After that, he looked a player transformed.
With his mobility hampered, Miller decided there was no point holding anything back and pounced on Markande’s predictable full-and-wide deliveries to club a 26-run 16th over. He then picked Cummins’ slower balls to club both of them for four in the 17th. And when Unadkat delivered the first ball of the 20th, Miller saw it land in his arc, and expectedly, sent it out of the park to finish unbeaten on 44.
On a slow pitch where boundary droughts were common throughout the game, the equation was 49 off the last five overs with Miller having scored only 13 off 16. But Miller in run-chases is a different beast, with the batter having scored three fifties and averaging over 56 in second innings since IPL 2021 before this game. He brought all that experience to the fore to close out the game for GT.
Miller was involved in a 64-run partnership off 42 balls with Sudarshan, with 24 of those runs coming in a single over off Mayank Markande. Miller struck two fours and a six in the over while Sudarshan also hit an important six, bringing down the equation to 25 off four overs.
Although Sudarshan was dismissed by Cummins in the 17th over, Miller hit a couple of fours and then Vijay Shankar got them closer with two fours off Jaydev Unadkat. Although only six runs came off the 19th over bowled by Cummins, GT needed just a single in the last over and a limping Miller finished it with a six off Unadkat.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Pat Cummins the loosing skipper said :
“Good game of cricket, was tight in the end, probably we needed 10-15 more runs. I think they bowled well, just losing a couple of wickets, didn’t have that one person who kicked on to get a fifty, that happens. Today it was, we thought the wicket was going to get a bit slow, the off-cutters did grip, we had 8 bowling options in our side,”
“I thought the wicket played the same in both innings. It’s T20 cricket isn’t it? Had a fantastic couple of games with the bat, today we didn’t quite click,”
Shubman Gill the winning skipper said :
“To be able to win two matches at home, great. Our next match is also here and then we’ve got a couple of matches on the road. Hopefully by the time we come back, we will have good momentum into this tournament,”
“The way our bowlers bowled in the middle overs, especially Noor … obviously Rashid bhai is a world-class bowler and he’s always coming in and giving his best, but the way Darshan came in and bowled those two crucial overs at the death was very important for us,”
“(On Mohit) He’s such an experienced player, especially on wickets like these,”
“He comes in day in day out, he practices his skills and he’s so skilled. It’s not easy in this heat to bowl four overs back-to-back, sometimes three overs back-to-back. But he comes in, bowls those yorkers, slower ones and mixes it so well. The credit has to go to him for practicing those skills and to be able to have the confidence to execute them in the match. In this heat, wherever we play in the day match, it’s easier to score with the new ball,”
“Once the ball gets old and the wickets gets slow, it’s difficult to hit those sixes, especially on the longer side and that was our plan – to be able to let them hit the slower ones on the longer side. (On his dismissal) The ball was there to be hit, I was just backing my shot, but the ball hit the bottom and it didn’t bounce as much as I expected it to be but that’s fine. In T20, you have to always keep your options open and if the ball is there, you have to go for it,”
“Once we saw how our spinners were bowling, we thought 160-170 would be a good score. Credit to the bowlers how they came in and restricted them to that total. Everybody knows their roles in terms of batting or bowling, Sai has been playing well, Wriddhi bhai has been doing what Wriddhi bhai does and it was important for us to be able to get Miller back in form. Just cramps (on Miller’s status),”
Mohit Sharma for his bowling received Player of the Match said :
“Thank you sir for reminding me that I’m getting older day by day (chuckles). Practice is normal but the important thing is how to use the variation according to the game situation. Bowlers do have variations but it matters when and how to use it. It’s important when you have two balls in mind, the batters are also ready, they are ready for the slower bouncer but they are not ready for the slower short ball wide of the wicket so I mix and match,”
“Dew is uncontrollable and we practice bowling with a wet ball. When it’s going good, I enjoy. When the match gets over, I like to reflect where I did well and where I didn’t. Rashid and Noor bowled well, we went for a few runs in the back end but we came back well in the final few overs,”
Clinical from Gujarat. Their bowlers set it up with an impressive performance in the afternoon as they restricted a dangerous SRH batting line-up to 162 on a slightly two-paced surface. Mohit Sharma was the pick of the bowlers as he picked a three-fer and the Afghan spin twins – Noor and Rashid – bowled well in the middle overs. In reply, Saha got his team off to a brisk start before perishing to Shahbaz in the powerplay. Shubman Gill got a start and looked in good touch but he holed out immediately after the strategic timeout.
SRH exerted some pressure on the hosts with a couple of tight overs. However, Sai Sudarshan and Miller never panicked. Washington Sundar, the Impact Player, wasn’t effective and the two left-handers went after Markande in the 16th overs which went for 24 runs (Wd 4 4 Wd 1 6 1 6). That turned out to be the decisive over. Cummins managed to nip out Sai and somehow dragged the match to the final over but Miller, despite hobbling, showed his prowess to take his team home.