Gujarat Titans’ (GT) skipper Shubman Gill played a fine captain’s knock of 84 runs in 44 balls. Rajasthan Royals (RR) bowlers had a topsy-turvy outing on a batting paradise wicket. GT’s batters performed in unison as skipper the openers Shubman Gill & Sai Sudharsan, again laid the foundation for the rest of the batters.
Shubman Gill & Sai Sudharsan decimate RR in powerplay overs
GT were put in to bat by RR on a belter of a wicket. Jofra Archer had a bizarre first over where he bowled 5 extras (4 wides and one no ball), which gave away 9 runs from it; as he gave away 18 runs, which was fascinating to watch. Sai Sudharsan & Shubman Gill then unleashed an attack on RR bowlers. The ploy of hitting hard length wasn’t successful for Tushar Deshpande in the 4th over, who conceded 15 runs.
It was quite puzzling to see Jofra Archer not given back-to-back overs as giving him the 5th over of the match proved to be costly. Shubman Gill absolutely whacked Jofra for 2 fours and 1 six as variations were proving to be ineffective. GT had a breathtaking power play where they amassed 82 runs and were unscathed as RR’s bowlers were toyed with.
RR fightback; Shubman Gill & co continue onslaught
GT notched up their 100 runs in 8.1 overs as Sai & Gill were quite ruthless in their approach. Ravindra Jadeja slowed down the things as his immaculate bowling and stump-to-stump line & length reduced the flow of boundaries. GT at the halfway stage of 10 overs, their score was 114-0 as Sai got to his half-century and was looking ominous.
In the 11th over, Yash Raj Punja duped Sai Sudharsan (55 in 36) as his attempt to clear long on was unsuccessful. GT’s score at that time was 118-1 in 10.5 overs. Shubman Gill & Jos Buttler slowly tried to up the ante as they had the luxury of having wickets in hand. The boundaries flowed from both the batters as strike rotation was done quite consistently.
In the 14th over, Jadeja bamboozled Buttler (13 in 10), who wasn’t able to clear the long off fielder. GT’s score was 150-2 in 13.2 overs at the dismissal of Buttler. Shubman Gill was standing tall as he, along with Washington Sundar, had a perfect platform to end innings on a high note. Donovan Fereirra was pumelled in the 15th over for 11 runs. At the end of the strategic time out of 16 overs, GT’s score was 179-2.
RR pull back things; Rahul Tewatia & Washington Sundar cameos enlight GT
In the 17th over, Gill was outfoxed by Brijesh Sharma as Tushar at short fine leg took a jaw-dropping catch. Gill would regret the fact that he missed out on a well-deserved ton (84 in 44, smashing 9 fours and 3 sixes).
Brijesh Sharma & Tushar Deshpande used off cutters and bowled very short deliveries, which made life harder for batters to clear the fence. Jason Holder struggled with a run-a-ball 7-run knock. All of a sudden, it looked as if GT would end up below 230 runs. In the 20th over, there Rahul Tewatia & Washington Sundar smashed 3 gigantic sixes to all parts of the park as GT’s score was 229-4 as they scored 21 runs in that over. Brijesh Sharma was the pick of the bowlers, who took 2 wickets for 47 runs in a 4-over spell
Who’s winning, GT or RR
230 undoubtedly is a match-winning score in T20 cricket. We have seen absolutely crazy things happening in IPL 2026. The onus will be on Vaibhav Sooryavanshi & Yashasvi Jaiswal to bat deep rather than to play cameos. GT has a star-studded bowling lineup with Mohammed Siraj, Holder & Prasidh Krishna; they are favorites to win this match. It would require a miracle for RR to win this match.
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