The 16th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) witnessed yet another last-over thriller, with Gujarat Titans (GT) pulling off a close win against Punjab Kings (PBKS) at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium on Thursday (April 13). Notably, the result of the match was decided on the penultimate ball of the game.
Winning the toss and electing to bowl first, GT restricted PBKS to a total of 153/8 in the allotted 20 overs. Matthew Short was the top scorer for the Punjab-based team with 36 runs off 24 balls, including six fours and one six. Jitesh Sharma (25) and Sam Curran (22) also made valuable contributions to the team’s total. Meanwhile, Mohit Sharma was the pick of the bowlers for Gujarat and took two wickets for just 18 runs in his quota of four overs.
In reply, GT chased down the set target with just one ball to spare. While Shuman Gill played a decent inning of 67 runs off 49 balls for his team, Wriddhiman Saha scored quickfire 30 runs off 19 balls. Harpreet Brar, Arshdeep Singh, and Kagiso Rabada took a wicket each for PBKS but failed to stop Gujarat from winning the match.
It is noteworthy that Gill, who at one point was 17 off 9 balls and was scoring with a strike rate of over 200, slowed down after the powerplay. The right-handed batter took 18 deliveries to reach his fifty after 35 runs. Had Rahul Tewatia not struck a four off the fifth ball of the final over, Gill’s slow innings could have cost GT the match.
The former India opener Virender Sehwag did not like Gill’s approach and bashed him for not playing according to the situation but for personal achievement instead.
“He scored 67 off 49 balls but when did he reach his fiifty? He reached his fifty off maybe 41-42 balls so in 7-8 balls he has scored 17 more runs. The accelration came there, after he had reached his fifty. If even that had not happened then GT would have chasing maybe 17 instead off 7 in the last over,” Sehwag said on Cricbuzz after the match.
“You can’t think let me score a fifty and we will anyway win the match. This is cricket. The moment you think about your own performance (instead of the team), you will get a tight slap from cricket. You can’t think like that. If he had showed the same intent and played at close to a strike rate of 200 when he was nearing fifty then he could have reached his milestone a lot earlier and save more deliveries for his team,” he added.
