Live Blog - Gujarat Titans vs Punjab Kings - Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma stun Titans

Gujarat Titans have a last throw of the dice. They go for DRS off the last ball of the over which resulted in a leg bye and the victory.

But Punjab Kings were already celebrating. Shashank Singh was lost inside a storm of huddles, everyone coming up to hug him. He actually has to pull away to see what was happening with the DRS. Surreal scenes.

He came in with the score 70 for 4 and his team still needing 130 runs in 68 balls. There weren't anybody else in the hut who could marshall the chase. It came down to the guy who, at the auction, looked like a faulty buy, because Punjab Kings actually tried to unload him. They clarified it with a tweet. Now they'll be singing his praises.

Mohit Sharma going for just six in the 17th over meant PBKS only had a 9% chance of victory.

Omarzai going for 16 in the next over swung the pendulum the other way. PBKS's chances of victory rose by 19.2%

Mohit going for 18 runs in the 19th over practically seals the comeback. It's a 66.13% rise in their chances of victory

It doesn't even look like he's registered that he's got to a landmark. Jogs across for a single and then unstraps his gloves.

At the auction there was a bit of a furore around his selection, where it seemed like Punjab Kings had got the wrong Shashank Singh on board and were trying to offload him when they realised it.

Later the franchise had to send out a tweet in clarification, which the player replied to, hoping to shut the stories that were swirling around.

Tonight, it looks like PBKS' purchase is coming good. He was hitting sixes off Noor Ahmad and Rashid Khan. He has now got support from the Impact Sub Ashutosh Sharma, who has carted Azmatullah Omarzai for 16 runs in the 18th over.

The first two overs were in the powerplay. The third one was the 14th, where he was taken down by Shashank Singh. The fourth was the 16th, where Jitesh Sharma went after him. The wicket came off a full toss.

This is just...

He's toying with the batters...

Targeted leg stump with the legbreak to take out Jonny Bairstow.

Targets leg stump with the googly now and Prabhsimran is gone.

Bairstow wasn't prepared for the turn in.

Prabhsimran isn't prepared for the turn away.

Noor is behaving his age.

Only 19 year olds have the gall to make their elders look silly like this

Oh it was such an uncertain prod. There's a high chance that Jonny Bairstow saw a ball tossed up outside leg stump and thought it would be a googly. He played down middle stump. That created the gap.

Noor has bluffed his way through to a wicket that Titans needed. He went for the legbreak. It held its line just enough to sneak through that gap that Bairstow had so helpfully provided, because who would think the wristspinner pitching on and maybe even outside leg would be turning into you?

Sometimes T20 cricket is just art.

Bairstow has four boundaries in seven balls faced. Three in the first over, from Azmatullah Omarzai, and one more off Omarzai in the third over. Just the right kinda start to a 200-chase. (Dhawan's gone tho)

Sampath Bandarupalli, from our stats team: Harshal Patel has gone for 106 runs in the seven overs he bowled at the death without taking a wicket in this year's IPL. Bowling to left-handers, he conceded 77 runs in 4.3 overs at an economy of 17.11, while against right-handers, he went for 29 in 2.3 overs at 11.60. Harshal's struggles to contain left-handers at the death have regularly cost him. His economy bowling to the LHB at the death in the IPL is 12.61 of the 205 balls he bowled, with a wicket every 47.88 runs. But against the right-handers, he goes at 9.29 across 348 balls, with an average of just 13.47.

Harshal's difference in economy (3.32) and average (34.41) bowling to left-handers and right-handers are the highest among the 41 players to have bowled 15-plus overs to RHB and LHB. The next biggest difference in bowling average is Tim Southee's 27.50 (55.50 vs LHB and 28.00 vs RHB), while Jaydev Unadkat's 3.27 (12.33 vs RHB and 9.05 vs LHB) is the highest difference in the bowling economy.

This innings has been all about Shubman Gill. Faced only 10 balls in the powerplay. At the 10th over, he had only 19 balls. He was in prime form but he wasn't getting the strike. Sometimes batters lose it when that happens. Gill didn't. He played through the innings, making 89 off 48, and, with help from Sudharsan in the middle and Tewatia at the end, has helped his team put up a challenging total. 58 runs in the last four overs, 23 of those off Tewatia's bat

The problem with bowling to Rahul Tewatia is he always tries to access the area backward of square on the leg side. He does that by shifting himself outside off and if the bowler goes wider to hide the ball away from his reach, he can just leave it and collect a wide. Harshal Patel ends up bowling that wide - twice - in the 19th over.

This is why line doesn't matter in T20s anymore. Tewatia took two balls from that wide line for boundaries behind square leg - one a six and one a four. Impossible batter to deal with.

The head-to-head tonight finishes 26 off 10 with two fours and two glorious sixes. Rabada actually closed the over out well, shifting his line from the stumps to outside off, and going blockhole, to make Gill reach out for the ball. That increases the chances of him losing his shape. Good comeback.

Vijay Shankar is gone btw - he attempted five aggressive shots in 10 balls, but none of them went to the boundary, it wasn't his night. But that might still work in favour of the Titans because it brings their recognised boundary-hitters Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan into the picture

Kings went to Rabada because he was the form bowler today to break a dangerous partnership. He got hit for 14 runs. Its never easy following an over like that, or a bowler like that, but Harshal Patel has done a difficult job in a difficult tournament all through his career. Some part of his game might have been found out - people are starting to wait for his slower balls - but there is bravery in how he puts himself in these positions; bowling at times when the teams are looking to score two runs a ball and focusing on how he can deny them success there. Sometimes in T20 cricket the focus isn't wickets. It's to bowl what the batter does not want. Sudharsan wants pace on the ball. Harshal doesn't give it and gets him with an offcutter bouncer that goes through to the keeper.

Sudharsan is batting with purpose. The other two that were with Gill were eating up deliveries. Saha took 13 for 11 and Williamson took 22 for 26. Sudharsan has played just 12 balls and hit five of them to the boundary.

His innings is tilting the balance in this game. And with Gill still out there, looking in prime form, despite not getting much of the strike, a big total is still on the cards. And that explains why Punjab have pressed the button and called Rabada in for his third over, when the innings is still in the 13th. But Gill has launched the fast bowler down the ground for a magnificent six and Sudharsan follows suit. Titans 119 for 2 in 13.

Gujarat Titans usually have Sai Sudharsan at No. 3. This time they had to put Kane Williamson up there because they lost David Miller to injury. Replacing a finisher with a batter who doesn't have the game to bat in the middle-order means a bit of disruption. Punjab Kings have taken advantage of that disruption by getting in three overs of the left-arm spinner Harpreret Brar for very little runs.

For 15 straight balls, all he had to do was hit the fourth stump line, without overpitching. And that's what he did. As a bonus he removed Kane Williamson too, getting turn and bounce. Titans could have had the better of this match-up if they'd had their whole complement of players to choose from and Sudharsan had come in at No. 3 and Miller later at No. 4. Brar has been good to left-handers this season but still turning the ball into the batter is a risk. Sudharsan hit 5 for 2 balls to end the wicket-taking over.

Shubman Gill has only faced 10 of the first 36 balls. He's their best batter but he's been hidden from the strike. That's a win for Punjab Kings.

Arshdeep Singh is the kind of bowler you want in a T20 team. He's a left-armer. He swings the new ball, particularly against the angle, from over the wicket, into right-handers. He has a good yorker so he can come back and bowl at the death. And he has a level head.

Unfortunately people doing this job have a desperately small margin of error, because they either function when there are only two fielders on the boundary, or when the batting team is going for a boundary every ball. As a result, there is sometimes no correlation between bowling the ball you want, and getting hit for runs. Like here, in the third over, Arshdeep beats Gill's outside edge, then keeps going after it, keeps seeking it out. Finally he gets it, but there's no slip and it goes away for four.

That's testament to more than just his pace. Kagiso Rabada finds that awkward spot on the pitch to hit. He rarely floats it up to the batter. He understands that his strength comes from hitting the pitch hard and scrounging out every bit of movement that he can find. That's possibly why he isn't such a big threat in the death. His length allows batters to get under the ball, once it gets soft and old. Now, with it being hard and new, it has the potential to misbehave. After Shubman Gill gets a leading edge, Saha gets one too, and he doesn't survive.

They got the toss advantage. And they almost made it count with an early wicket. Wriddhiman Saha is a wonderful asset in the Powerplay (see graphic). He always looks for boundaries. That's his role. It's a little similar to Sunil Narine, except he looks for fours, Narine looks for sixes.

Punjab Kings would've been thrilled with the on-field umpire giving Saha out lbw to start the second over, but DRS saves him, showing the ball was going over leg stump. Good bounce. That means it's going to be fun to bat out there.

Shikhar Dhawan says its a good wicket and that it will stay the same through the game. Plus chasing is a massive advantage in Ahmedabad. If anything happens off this pitch, it will be in the first innings. Typically it tends to be slightly grippy, then later, it flows onto the bat. Livingstone is injured. Sikandar Raza is in. A like-for-like change.

Shubman Gill says he would've wanted to bowl first. Notes that the weather is a bit gloomy and hopes there is no dew later when they're bowling. David Miller has a niggle, so Kane Williamson is in. That's a big blow - their finisher going out, and he's replaced by a top-order bat, meaning the pressure on the likes of Vijay Shankar and Rahul Tewatia down the order has just ramped up. It looks a very top-heavy XI with Sudharsan and Williamson both anchor batters.

Gujarat Titans: 1 Shubman Gill (capt), 2 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 3 Sai Sudharsan, 4 Kane Williamson, 5 Vijay Shankar, 6 Azmatullah Omarzai, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Noor Ahmad, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Darshan Nalkande

Subs: BR Sharath, Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Warrier, Abhinav Manohar, Manav Suthar

Punjab Kings: 1 Shikhar Dhawan (capt), 2 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 3 Prabhsimran Singh, 4 Sam Curran, 5 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 6 Shashank Singh, 7 Sikandar Raza, 8 Harpreet Brar, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Arshdeep Singh

Subs: Tanay Thyagarajan, Ashutosh Sharma, Rahul Chahar, Vidwath Kaverappa, Nathan Ellis (The last three of these are bowlers, that's a strange impact players list, considering they're bowling first)

Gujarat Titans don't look like the miracle team that they usually are, which is perhaps to be expected considering they lost the man who breaks open batting orders - Mohammed Shami - and their leader who along with Ashish Nehra made them the biggest surprise that this tournament has offered in YEARS when they lifted the title. So how do they fix those holes? Our experts took a shot at figuring it out

Punjab Kings have a fine batting order, but they might be without one of their biggest hitters tonight, with Liam Livingstone dealing with an injury. Hitters all the way down the order should really make them that challenges for the title but it's never really happened that way. Perhaps because of their bowling.