Shubman Gill-led Gujarat Titans (GT) lost by 33 runs against KL Rahul-led Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the 21st match of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) on Sunday, April 7 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.
Despite losing the toss, GT got what it wanted as LSG elected to bat first in the match. LSG could not make the most of the decision they took as opening batsman Quinton de Kock was back in the hut on the fourth ball of the first over. Soon, Devdutt Padikkal died in the third over and his poor run in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 continued.
After Padikkal’s dismissal, Marcus Stoinis joined KL Rahul in the middle and together they frustrated the GT bowling unit. They were not very aggressive with the bat and added 73 runs in 62 balls before Rahul was dismissed for 31 balls and 33.
Marcus Stoinis tried to speed up and make some good shots. However, he fell for 58 in the 15th over. In the end, Nicholas Pooran (32) and Ayush Badoni (20) played at a good strike rate and took LSG to a total of 163/5.
Chasing the target, Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan batted brilliantly and added 54 runs in 39 balls. The opening batsmen looked comfortable in the middle and built a great foundation for the victory.
However, suddenly, the Gujarat Titans (GT) faced a terrible batting collapse and went from 54/0 to 93/7 in no time. Yash Thakur, Krunal Pandya and Ravi Bishnoi combined to very quickly dismiss Shubman Gill, Kane Williamson, Sai Sudharsan, BR Sharath, Darshan Nalkande, Vijay Shankar and Rashid Khan.
In the end, Rahul Tewatia played a 30-run knock but it was not enough for victory as GT scored 130 in 18.5 overs. For LSG, Yash Thakur was the hero by taking a 5-wicket haul. Also, Krunal Pandya got three wickets for just 11 runs.
We got off to a decent start but lost wickets in the middle and couldn’t recover from that – Shubman Gill
At the post-match presentation ceremony, Shubman Gill was very forceful in his verdict on the match. Shubman Gill blamed his batsmen for the loss and praised his bowlers for doing a great job in the match. The GT captain said:
“It was a good batting wicket, a poor batting performance from us. We had a decent start but we lost wickets in the middle and couldn’t recover from that. Our bowlers were exceptional as they were restricted to 160-odd, just that our hitters let us down.
GT misses the services of David Miller, who has been one of the team’s best players in recent years. Talking about him, Shubman Gill said:
“(On David Miller’s absence) Miller is the type of player who can change a game in a couple of overs because I think this total was very achievable for us.”
Shubman Gill was dismissed by a Yash Thakur ripper on the last ball of the powerplay. When asked about dismissing him, Shubman Gill said that he was trying to make the most of the power play and in the process got out. Shubman Gill said:
“(On his dismissal) I thought it was the last end of the power play and I just wanted to make the most of it, only I missed that ball while trying to play a little too square. It was tremendous to see our players bowl, we were eager to restrict them around 160-165”.