As it happened: Gujarat Titans vs Lucknow Super Giants, IPL 2022, Pune

Gujarat Titans booked their spot in the playoffs in their first IPL season by comfortably defending 144 on a spinning pitch in Pune as Lucknow Super Giants collapsed to 82 all out.

The IPL's newest franchises knew that the winner of Monday night's game would officially seal a spot in the playoffs as well as taking big strides towards a top-two finish, and the game looked in the balance after Titans posted the joint-lowest total batting first this season in Pune while losing only four wickets in a curious innings. Shubman Gill batted through the 20 overs for 63 not out off 49 balls as Titans focused on keeping wickets in hand and rotating strike after choosing to bat, but the value of his innings only became fully apparent when Super Giants crumbled against spin in the chase.

Rashid Khan and R Sai Kishore - the left-arm spinner from Tamil Nadu on debut for Titans - finished with combined figures of 6 for 31 from 5.5 overs as they ran through Super Giants' middle and lower order. The convincing margin between the teams dented Super Giants' net run rate and left them looking over their shoulder at Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore, with their hopes of a top-two finish - and qualification for the first qualifier - taking a significant blow.

This is getting very ugly, very quickly. Deepak Hooda is the last man standing for LSG after BBQing Marcus Stoinis, appearing to call him through for a second run and then leaving him scrambling to make his ground to be run out for 2. Off the last ball of Rashid Khan's over, Jason Holder failed to pick the legbreak and was already walking by the time he had been given out. It looks increasingly like Gujarat are going to book their spot in the top two.

Ayush Badoni is so far down this pitch that this might as well be a run-out. He charges down to R Sai Kishore's fifth ball but is beaten in the flight and the ball spins sharply away from his bat. Saha completes a straightforward stumping with Badoni in no-man's-land and Kishore has a wicket in his first over as a Gujarat Titans player.

Worst review ever? Peter Della Penna thinks it might have been on ball-by-ball commentary. Ayush Badoni knocked a single straight to long-on out of the middle of the bat but Rashid Khan convinced Hardik that the ball had hit his pad first. Quite evidently, it didn't...

It only takes three balls for Rashid Khan to have an impact on the game. His googly spins sharply away from the outside edge of Krunal Pandya's bat as he stumbles forwards, and Wriddhiman Saha whips off the bails to complete the stumping. Lucknow are wobbling!

Dayal has another! A misfield by Jayant Yadav, the sub fielder, gives Karan Sharma an early boundary on his LSG debut but Dayal removes his Uttar Pradesh team-mate, his thick outside edge flying to short third. Dayal has two, and Gujarat have three in the powerplay to put them right in the game.

Pressure bursts pipe. Mohammed Shami conceded only five runs off his first 16 legal deliveries and KL Rahul was bogged down on 8 off 15 balls. As a result, he felt the need to take on a straight, hard-length ball - but could only top edge it to Saha behind the stumps. Gujarat have two early wickets, just like Lucknow did themselves.

Yash Dayal is back in the side for Gujarat tonight and makes an important early breakthrough, having Quinton de Kock well caught at cover point. The two boundaries he conceded had more than a stroke of good fortune about them from LSG's perspective, too: de Kock top-edged straight back over his head for six with three men converging underneath the ball, while Deepak Hooda's first ball was a thick outside edge for four.

16 runs off Jason Holder's final over gives Gujarat 144 for 4. Unusual for an IPL side to score so few runs while losing only four wickets batting first but Titans' batting strategy was relatively conservative, with Rashid Khan due in at No. 7, and their bowling has been their strength throughout this season. This is the joint-lowest total by a team batting first at Pune in IPL 2022.

David Miller has been a star for Gujarat this season, regularly providing a fast finish to take them across the line in run chases or giving them a springboard to an above-par score in the first innings. But he has struggled to get going tonight, knocking the ball around in an attempt to rebuild before exploding at the death - only to fall to one of his first attacking shots, caught at deep third off a Jason Holder slow ball.

Titans need Shubman Gill and Rahul Tewatia to lead them up towards 150-160 with a flourish in the final four.

LSG's attack so far tonight has involved four fast bowlers - Mohsin, Avesh, Holder and Chameera - and one fingerspinner in Krunal Pandya, with their main wristspinner Ravi Bishnoi left out of the side tonight. Sanjay Manjrekar suggests that Bishnoi could benefit from giving the ball a bit more flight if he comes back into the side.

Gujarat have struggle to score fluently in the overs straight after the powerplay all season - as this chart shows, they have been the slowest-scoring team in the five overs after the fielding restrctions lift throughout the season, and tonight's effort has reinforced that.

They have not lost many wickets in this period but have instead looked to consolidate and keep wickets in hand for the back end. But tonight, Hardik edged the first ball after the strategic timeout behind off Avesh Khan, and Gill's boundary off the final ball of the 10th over was the first since the powerplay.

The Pandya brothers are adjusting to life on opposing teams. In the reverse fixture earlier this season, Krunal conceded six runs from eight balls and dismissed Hardik; Hardik has knocked his brother for a couple of singles off two balls so far tonight.

Gujarat are still struggling to get going: they're 39 for 2 after seven overs.

This has been a poor start for Gujarat with the bat but Lucknow's fast-bowling attack are on fire. They're conceded less than a run a ball and taken two powerplay wickets already: Saha miscued Mohsin's cutter to mid-on and now Wade edges behind looking to scoop Avesh Khan's second ball.

Gujarat's middle order will be in for a real test now. With Rashid Khan carded at No. 7, they can hardly afford to lose another wicket before the 10th over but need to keep scoring. Will Hardik and Gill look to counterattack or simply to consolidate?

As Ian Bishop has said, LSG's pace-bowling attack has been one of their major strengths this season. Young Mohsin Khan has impressed since breaking into the side and could have had the big wicket of Shubman Gill in his first over tonight, but Karan Sharma wasn't sure whether to go for the catch or prevent the boundary at deep third.

This is the first time this season that a team has opted to bat first in Pune, and only the second time that a team has chosen to bat first in a night game. The first was also GT, in their defeat against Punjab Kings at DY Patil this time last week.

R Sai Kishore, the left-arm fingerspinner from Tamil Nadu, will make his debut for Gujarat Titans last night. He has impressed in the powerplay throughout his career to date, and even adapted to bowling at the death in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy last year. Here's Deiva Muthu's profile for more.

"Sai was a bit of a nerd at school and his dream then was to become a scientist," Deiva tells me. "Around the time he was studying engineering, he broke into the TN Under-19 side and decided to drop out of college. The move shocked his family, but he gradually rose through the ranks in Tamil Nadu to become their powerplay specialist in T20 as well as List A cricket. And when T Natarajan was unavailable last season due to injury, Sai even fronted up to bowl at the death. He's been working on a swinging arm ball, something he picked up from Mitch Santner at the CSK nets."

For Lucknow, the 23-year-old batter from Delhi, Karan Sharma - not to be confused with the legspinner Karn Sharma - makes his debut. He's in the early stages of his professional T20 career but has already captained Uttar Pradesh, and scored his maiden first-class hundred for them in March.