Directed by Shubman Gill Gujarat Titans (GT) presented in the seventh game of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) against Ruturaj Gaikwad-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Tuesday, March 26.
Gill got lucky in the toss and invited CSK to bat first in the match. His bowlers started well and allowed the Chennai Super Kings batsmen to play an attacking brand of cricket. Both Rachin Ravindra and Ruturaj Gaikwad looked confident in the middle and launched an attack on the GT bowling unit.
Both the openers scored 46 runs, but the New Zealand star clocked his runs at an explosive strike rate of 230, while the CSK captain was considerably slow with his strike rate of 127.77.
Next in the middle were Ajinkya Rahane and Shivam Dube and the latter played his natural attacking cricket from the first ball. Even though Rahane was slow and was eventually dismissed for 12, Dube continued his batting masterclass and scored a 22-ball fifty.
Additionally, Daryl Mitchell (24 off 20), Sameer Rizvi (14 off 6) and Ravindra Jadeja (7 off 3) made decent contributions to help Chennai Super Kings post 206/6 on the board in their 20 overs.
Chasing the target, Shubman Gill was dismissed for 8 off 5 balls. After losing their captain, it seemed like the Gujarat Titans batsmen lost their hopes and couldn’t play a good innings.
Players like Wriddhiman Saha, Sai Sudharsan and David Miller had a huge responsibility on their shoulders to take the game deep into their team, but they all disappointed with their performances.
Gujarat Titans’ strong lower order of Rashid Khan, Azmatullah Omarzai and Rahul Tewatia were dismissed for 1, 11 and 6. The visitors were bowled out for 143/8 and CSK won by 63 runs.
“They outplayed us when we were batting, their execution was spot on” – Shubman Gill
Speaking during the post-match presentation ceremony, Shubman Gill praised Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for getting their execution right. He said:
“They outplayed us when we were hitting, their execution was spot on. We backed ourselves to get a decent score on the power play, and when we didn’t, we were always playing catch-up. “It was unfortunate for us.”
Shubman Gill added that they hoped to pursue around 200, but they failed miserably. He also said the match would serve as a great learning experience for the players. Shubman Gill said:
“In T20 you can always talk about 10-15 runs here or there, at the end of the day it’s about how much they got. On this ground we expected to chase 190-200. I think it is a great learning for the bowlers. I think it is better to have this type of game at the beginning of the tournament than in the middle or at the end. We were always hoping to chase 190-200, it was really good terrain. I felt like we let ourselves down while we were batting.”
Talking about his captaincy, Shubman Gill said that he is learning a lot of new things and flaunted the past glory of GT. He said:
“(On the captaincy) Many new learnings, new experiences and different things. It is exciting to captain a team like Gujarat Titans; We have reached the final in the last few years, so it is very exciting. exciting.”