R. Sai Kishore produced a fine display of spin bowling on a conducive Mullanpur track, R Sai Kishore‘s four-fer restricting Punjab Kings to a measly 142 before Rahul Tewatia applied the finishing touches to a chase that could have gone awry after a string of wickets fell in the post-PowerPlay phase of the chase.
For Gujarat Titans, the trio of Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmed and R Sai Kishore picked up seven wickets between them. Punjab Kings’ spinners too threatened with Liam Livingstone picking a couple but the middle-over strikes from GT proved too much for PBKS to replicate .Depth in spin bowling stocks between the teams turned out to be a significant factor.
Pitch and Toss
“Dimensions – 70m and 63m square, 72m down the ground. Expect the bowlers to be defending towards that bigger side. All four matches this season have gone all the way here at this venue ending in the final over. We’ve had some thrillers. Heavy bias for the fast bowlers – 47 wickets, just nine to the spinners. The big reason is the pace and bounce in this wicket. We’ve seen good carry, we’ve also seen a little bit of extra swing here at this venue.
That’s played a part particularly with the new ball. Teams haven’t quite known how to attack the first ten overs. Last game here, Mumbai laid the foundation with the experience of Sharma and Surya in the first ten, reaped the rewards in the back ten, they were able to get to 192 which I think is about par on this wicket.
The average first innings total here is 174, but I think it’s better than that. Today we are seeing quite a bare patch at this end and also at the far end. So it might be a little bit drier but generally it’s even coverage of grass, comes onto the bat. The big thing is that Punjab have struggled. Their top three has been the worst in terms of output in this comp, that’s the reason why the average score is lower than it should be. We might not get to see necessarily the best batting on this surface.”
Punjab Kings skipper Sam Curran won the toss and chose to bat with no changes in the team.
Gujarat Titans fielding first bought in R Sai Kishore for Spencer Johnson.
Prabhsimran quick off the blocks as Punjab scores 56 runs in the Powerplay.
Prabhsimran Singh called the early shots for the hosts after Sam Curran opted to bat on the used surface. The highlight of this phase was a 21-run takedown of Sandeep Warrier in the second over, which saw Prabhsimran hit three fours and a six. Three overs in, Sam Curran had faced only four balls and scored six runs but his partner more than made up for it with his belligerence.
PBKS’ quick start forced Shubman Gill to bowl Mohit Sharma in the PowerPlay for only the third time in the bowler’s GT career. In fact, Mohit sent down two overs in the phase and crucially managed to get Prabhsimran caught-behind for a 21-ball 35. Nonetheless, PBKS’ second 50+ opening partnership of the season gave them a solid 56/1 after 6 overs.
Some Kings players shone, but too briefly to make a defining impact on the game. The first of these was Prabhsimran Singh, who smoked three sixes and three fours in the 35 off 21 balls that raised the Kings innings off the ground. He was out before the powerplay ended though.
R Sai Kishore, Noor and Rashid run riot in the middle overs as Punjab Kings stumble in the middle overs.
Gill denied PBKS’ batters any pace on the bat and his decision to field three frontline spinners stood vindicated. The GT skipper also made two sharp DRS calls that fetched him the wickets of Rilee Rossouw and Sam Curran respectively. Noor Ahmad and Rashid Khan were the bowling beneficiaries as the Afghan pair poked into PBKS’ batting insecurities. The left-arm wrist spinner also produced a superb googly to have Liam Livingstone edging to first slip.
R Sai Kishore was the follow-up act in terms of chronology and if anything, proved to be the main act on the night, with his pace variations working like a charm. Jitesh Sharma charged out, missed and lost his stumps. Rising star Ashutosh Sharma, who hasn’t faced much spin this IPL, was beaten in the flight and holed out while Shashank Singh chipped a simple return catch. From 52/0, PBKS tamely slipped to 99/7.
Rashid made himself almost impossible to hit. He bowled a three-run fifth over when Kings had been going at 10.50, previously. Noor, the left-arm wrist spinner, then had Rilee Rossouw lbw in the seventh over to kick off the period of massive spin dominance, in which six more would fall to the slow bowlers.
Rashid and Noor bowled in tandem in the five overs after the powerplay and gave away only 24 runs, taking two wickets. Then came R Sai Kishore, and by this stage Kings were desperate for boundaries. They kept trying to hit out against him, but R Sai Kishore varied his pace and flight beautifully, and kept deceiving them.
R Sai Kishore’s first dismissal – Jitesh Sharma – came via hitting the stumps. R Sai Kishore’s second, was the prized wicket of Ashutosh Sharma, who holed out to the sweeper cover. R Sai Kishore later had Shashank Singh caught and bowled, and Harpreet Brar caught at the straight boundary at the death. All up, the spinners took 7 for 68 from their 12 overs.
Harpreet Brar fights but PBKS finish under par to 142 all out after 20 overs.
PBKS were wrong to think they were past the phase where spin was going to be a problem. Gill threw at them an over of Shahrukh Khan in the 16th of the innings which went for just seven runs. Harpreet Brar finally decided to break the shackles in the 18th, hitting Mohit for a pair of fours. He was dropped by David Miller in R Sai Kishore’s final over – the 19th of the innings – and added another four and a six before he became the left-arm spinners’ fourth wicket. Mohit then gave away only three in the final over with PBKS bowled out off the final ball.
The first 11 overs of Gujarat Titans’ spin won them the match, essentially. Before Rashid Khan came on to bowl the fifth over, Punjab Kings were going nicely, at 42 for no loss. Then Rashid bowls a four-run over, and the Titans slow-bowling show begins in Mullanpur. He and compatriot Noor Ahmad lock up the early part of the middle overs, taking three wickets between them. That’s before left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore rocks up and wrecks Kings’ middle over, taking 4 for 33.
Shubhman Gill steady start as GT goes to 44 for 1 in Powerplay over
Gujarat Titans have been the slowest scoring team in the PowerPlay but given the not-so-daunting nature of their target, there was perhaps hesitation to take a risk. They lost Wriddhiman Saha to Arshdeep Singh early but Gill settled in nicely, hitting four of the six boundaries hit in this phase, including two back-to-back ones against Kagiso Rabada. However, on evidence of Punjab’s collapse in the post-PowerPlay phase there was an incentive to go harder than they did with most of the field up.
Liam Livingstone drags PBKS back into the contest in the middle overs.
Like in the first innings, the introduction of spin led to brakes being applied on the scoring. The first three overs, bowled by Harpreet Brar and Liam Livingstone, brought GT only 21 runs and just three boundaries for GT. Livingstone displayed his matchup utility by bowling offspin to the left-handed Sai Sudarshan and leg spin to Gill. He reeled in the big fish in the 10th over when Gill’s attempted loft went only as far as the long-off fielder.
Livingstone struck again in his third over when David Miller missed with his attempted swipe and was cleaned up. The all-rounder wrapped up his spell with excellent figures of 2 for 19. While he may have claimed only two wickets, the pressure created by Livingstone allowed PBKS to pick up another one as Sam Curran cleaned up Sai Sudarshan for a sedate 31 off 34, leaving GT needing 42 off the final five overs.
Rahul Tewatia special takes GT over the line
42 off 30 quickly became 38 off 24 when Harshal Patel dismissed Azmatullah Omarzai in the 15th over. But Tewatia had won the Titans games from far more difficult positions. He defused any tension by hitting two fours off Harpreet Brar in a 13-run over and then hit three fours off Kagiso Rabada in the 18th over.
Shahrukh Khan helped ice the chase with a six over long-off in the over that brought 20 runs and although PBKS lost a couple of wickets in the 19th bowled by Harshal Patel, Tewatia finished the game by hitting the first ball off the final over for a four to finish on an unbeaten 36 off 18 balls.
It’s not like Titans were in serious trouble, but they needed someone to come in and play the match-winning batting innings nonetheless. And Rahul Tewatia was the guy once more. At one stage, Titans needed 38 runs off the last four overs, with five wickets in hand. A couple of wickets for Kings right then would have changed the match completely.
But Tewatia hit two fours off Brar’s over to bring the required rate back in hand, and restore Titans’ grip on the match. Then he hit three fours – two clubbed down the ground, and one tickled through fine leg – off Kagiso Rabada’s 18th over, in which Shahrukh Khan also hit a six. They reaped 20 runs there, and essentially made the game safe, bringing the requirement to five off 12 balls.
When they were defending their poor score, Livingstone took 2 for 19 from his four overs, and Harshal Patel and Sam Curran backed him up – Harshal taking three wickets and Curran one. But Kings had lost too much ground already with the bat.
Presentations and Road Ahead.
Sam Curran the loosing skipper said : I think so (we were 10-15 short). The effort with the ball was incredible, the commitment and fight was amazing, but it was not enough. The Afghanistan spinners are world class bowlers and Sai Kishore bowled really well, credit to them.
That is the third time we have used that pitch, anything above 160 would have been a par total but we still fought well. Prabhsimran played really well in the powerplay but unfortunately we lost a cluster of wickets after that. Now we know what to do, we have to win every game.
Shubhman Gill the winning skipper said : Would have liked to finish it a bit early, but good to get those two points. (Captaincy) It’s been very exciting for me to be able to take up this role. Except for the over-rate, everything has been good. When I am out there batting, I just want to play as a batter, I don’t want to think too much about the captaincy.
He (Livingstone) was trying to rush me there but the ball that I got out, I would have made that decision even if I was batting as a batsman or even without that little bit that we had (small altercation).
R Sai Kishore was Player of the Match for his 4 wickets haul said : Just trying to give my 120% for the team, playing after 20-25 days, so just wanted to go there, enjoy myself and give my everything. Ashish Nehra has created a beautiful environment where we can be fearless and play for the team no matter what the result is.
He told me to enjoy myself and gave me a lot of freedom to express myself. Instinctively I felt into the wicket and just change of pace was the way to go here, it worked out beautifully. Credit to everyone who showed up today. Rahul played an amazing knock once again. Rashid and Noor bowled beautifully, overall complete team effort.
All the five matches at this venue have gone to the final over, but the home team managed to win just one. Opting to bat, Punjab got off to a brisk start, thanks to Prabhsimran blitz in the powerplay, but the troika of GT spinners ruled the roost in the middle overs as they finished with combined bowling figures of 7/68. Chasing 143, Gujarat lost Saha inside the powerplay once again. Sai Sudarshan joined his skipper and the equation was tailor-made for the duo.
Shubman Gill was looking in good touch as well but his miscued loft resulted in GT stuttering a bit. Livingstone removed Gill and Miller to bring back life into this contest. Sai Sudarshan and Azmatullah were dismissed in quick succession and the Titans slipped from 77/1 to 103/4.
With 38 runs needed off four overs, the game was pretty much in the balance. That’s when Tewatia decided to do Tewatia things! He struck a couple of boundaries against Brar and Rabada conceded 20 runs off the 18th over which extinguished Punjab’s hopes. Harshal picked a couple of wickets in the penultimate over but that only delayed the proceedings.
A high-scoring thriller at the Eden Gardens followed by a last-over finish here in Mullanpur which hosted its final match of the season. PBKS and RCB remain at the bottom of the table with just 4 and 2 points respectively after playing eight matches each. Not a convincing win for the Titans but with these two crucial points, they climb up to the sixth spot.
Having wrapped up all their games at Mullanpur, PBKS next head to Kolkata to face hi-flying KKR on April 26. Gujarat Titans have a short turnaround and a shorter travel. They’ll face the Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on April 24.