Coming into their ninth game of the season, IPL 2025 runners-up Shreyas Iyer and his men were looking to regain their winning streak after suffering their first loss of the season to Rajasthan Royals in their last home appearance at the PCA Stadium in New Chandigarh.

Shreyas Iyer’s team has been an outstanding batting team but has struggled with the ball as it has failed to tighten the shackles even with mammoth targets on the board. Shreyas Iyer himself has admitted the same.

On the contrary, the Gujarat Titans have won the matches thanks to a promising show from their players. Kagiso Rabada is the highest wicket-taker for them this season with 16 wickets in 10 appearances.

Mohammed Siraj has been wonderful, while the inclusion of Jason Holder has added immense quality to his deck. The Titans’ batting department still relies heavily on their top three, although Jason Holder could be relied upon to contribute in the death overs.

GT pacers dominate, brief Shedge-Stoinis partnerships fail PBKS to promising score

The Gujarat Titans bowlers have performed amazingly against some of the strongest batting units in this edition of the IPL. They have taken advantage of the conditions and clashes against teams, especially at their home ground, the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Mohammed Siraj struck early in the powerplay as he dismissed Priyansh Arya and Cooper Connolly on consecutive deliveries and brought Shreyas Iyer into the crease much earlier. Shreyas has been strong against spinners, while he has struggled a bit against seamers with the new ball.

Kagiso Rabada hit the other PBKS opener, while Jason Holder broke the back of their middle order with two wickets in his two overs after the powerplay. PBKS had half their team on the bench with less than 50 runs on the board.

However, Suryansh Sehdge and Marcus Stoinis played a good knock in the middle overs, and also added some momentum to the innings with a partnership of over 70 in that phase. They had done a very good job of bringing them back into the game.

However, Rabada returned with a breakthrough against Shedge. Jason Holder’s double strike against Marcus Stoinis and Xavier Bartlett in the death overs limited the Kings to a score of just 163, with Marco Jansen tested with the bat for the first time this season.

Sai Sudharsan’s half-century and Washington Sundar’s promising finish help GT to crucial victory against PBKS

GT batsmen Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill, who have shown promising form this season, came out to chase the target of just 164 runs against one of the least economical bowling line-ups in this season of the competition.

Arshdeep Singh did not get the new ball in the first over; However, he dismissed the GT skipper in the second over of the match. Shubman Gill skied one up and Cooper Connolly completed the catch safely. With the huge advance, they saw a slight opening in the game.

Jos Buttler and Sai Sudharsan held their nerve and took them out of the power play; However, Vyshak removed Buttler after the powerplay and the seamers managed to restrict the run flow to some extent.

Sudharsan held his nerve and, along with Washington Sundar, took his innings deep with a hugely important win against Shreyas Iyer’s team. The Titans ended up in a very close contest when Sundar hit Stoinis for six off the penultimate ball of the final over of the game.

I personally think it was a great score- Shreyas Iyer

“Personally, I think it was a great result on a wicket where the ball was running a little bit at the start, especially the new ball. Their bowlers made the best use of the surface – the way they hit the lengths and the platform.”

“It was right on the stumps and didn’t give us many options to open our arms and score runs. I guess we lost four wickets in the powerplay. Getting to 160 from there was a phenomenal effort,” PBKS batsmen are backed by captain Shreyas Iyer.

“With the new ball I thought we could hit our line and length and get early wickets. But that didn’t work. But the way we fought till the end, congratulations for the efforts. The attitude and approach were excellent. We missed hitting the difficult lengths,” Shreyas Iyer continued.

Shreyas Iyer showed a promising mindset despite the defeat: “We are still at the top of the table, which is what matters. We will take the positives from this game. It is a big challenge moving forward in the IPL (playing on these types of pitches) because it tends to improve the attitude of the bowlers as well. It can boost their confidence, especially after being beaten for 50-60 runs in the previous game and then coming here and bowling great overs. We wanted to win but it didn’t click.”

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