Live Report - Will Jacks ton, Virat Kohli half-century help RCB canter against Titans

Incredible hitting. I-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e!

Six overs left in the chase. 53 to get. Kohli on 69. The obvious question on everybody's mind was - will Kohli get a century?

Then Jacks suddenly decided to remind everybody of his presence.

Jacks targeted Mohit Sharma in the 15th over, hitting him for two fours and three sixes, including one off a waist-high no-ball. If Titans planned to rein him in with Rashid's legspin, they were in for more surprise. Jacks went 6, 6, 4, 6, 6 to not just seal a massive win for RCB with four overs to chase. In a 201-run chase that. In the process, he completed a 41-ball 100 with that last six. Stupendous!

Kohli's strike rate against spin always comes under the scanner. He only struck at 113.96 against spin since the start of IPL 2018. The number being ten runs lower than his IPL career strike rate of 123.18 against spin and 17 below his overall 130.

But today, against the Titans spinners - Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad and R Sai Kishore - Kohli has gone at 181.81. He has been fed spin more and he has managed to take maximum advantage of that on a Ahmedabad surface where the ball now seems to be coming well onto the bat. What's more, he has used his sweeps and slog sweeps pretty well, scoring 22 off the six times he attempted them, the most he has scored of that one shot in a T20 game. His 61 off 34 against spin today is also his most against that type of bowling in an IPL game. In the process, he crosses 500 runs for the season.

A fifty for Kohli off 32 balls. He has paced his innings well so far. He has exploited the bigger pockets of the ground to run twos. Against spin, he has scored 43 off 23 balls and has, so far, only faced nine balls of fast bowling - all of which came in the first two overs. Looks pumped up, the RCB star. Can he help them overhaul the 201-run target?

On the way, Kohli did this against Sai Kishore:

He was almost done in by the spin and bounce on the first occasion. But Kohli went through with his loft and just cleared a leaping Miller at wide long-off. But on the next occasion, he was in complete control. He got down with a forward stride and flicked it well over wide long-on.

Faf du Plessis is off to a flier. He missed getting bat to a length ball on his pad on the very first ball. But then he pulled one over deep square leg off Sandeep Warrier's pace, before doing this to Azmatullah Omarzai in the third over:

RCB 37 for 0 in three overs, and Titans bring on R Sai Kishore for his left-arm spin. Du Plessis strikes at 126 against that style and Sai Kishore kept varying the flight and length to keep him quiet for four balls. Until du Plessis decided to slog sweep it straight to the lone fielder at deep midwicket.

Okay, this might seem preposterous. It might not happen. Not today at least. But should it? Rashid Khan inside the powerplay - bring it on, perhaps?

Rashid has bowled eight overs inside the first six in IPL 2024 and has an economy of 6.50. Here are his head-to-head records in the IPL:
vs du Plessis: 24 runs, 41 balls, 3 dismissals
vs Kohli: 70 runs, 58 balls, 2 dismissals
vs Maxwell: 49 runs, 42 balls, 1 dismissal
vs Patidar: 12 runs, 8 balls, 0 dismissals

What do you think?

Titans get a late surge, thanks largely to Sai Sudharsan's unbeaten 84, to get to exactly 200. That cameo in the middle overs from Shahrukh, a 30-ball 58, looks all the more crucial and catalytic looking back at the GT innings. They were almost going nowhere when he was sent in at No. 4. Sai Sudharsan, on the other hand, managed to speed up the longer he stayed in the middle. But make no mistake, this does not look all that easy a surface to bat on. The nine overs of spin from RCB went for 89 - the figures were actually decent before Shahrukh messed up Karn's figures. In the mid-innings chat, he did admit that the track was slow before the sun helping it flatten a bit.

Sai Sudharsan brought up his fifty off 34 balls. He was steady in the powerplay (18 off 16), sped up in the company of Shahrukh and was on 32 off 23 at the ten-over mark. But since his half-century, he has changed gears and how! He tonked Maxwell over midwicket and then hit a hat-trick of fours off Green. He also scooped one over fine leg. Since his fifty, he has scored 31 off 13 balls. In all, so far, he has struck at 205 (41 off 20) against spin and 148.14 (40 off 27) against pace.

Titans have been the slowest scoring team in the middle overs (7-16) in IPL 2024, and the cumulative strike rate of their top order in the phase before the start of today's game was 122.53 - a good 14 runs slower than the next in line Punjab Kings (136.30). A large chunk of those featured balls faced by Sai Sudharsan (S/R 132.14), Gill (150.60) and Miller (137.31).

Today when Titans lost their second wicket in the seventh over, they chose to send Shahrukh Khan in at No. 4. And the move has paid dividends thus far. For, he has galloped to a 24-ball half-century, his first in the IPL, and messed up the bowlers' lengths.

11th over:

12th over:

13th over:

Titans managed to score 43 in the three overs after the tenth. While Shahrukh hit three sixes and two fours in that bit, Sai Sudharsan also chipped in with a six off Karn Sharma.

But then Siraj came back for his third and immediately struck with a reverse-swinging (yes!) yorker at 140kph to castle Shahrukh. 58 off 30 is job done, you'd think. Titans managed to score 86 in the 45 balls he was in the middle.

How did Shubman Gill fare during his stay in the middle?

A different Gill on show at a venue where he scores runs for fun. He hit a four on the fourth ball he faced - a classy flick off Siraj through midwicket - but then struggled for timing on a slowish surface where strokemaking does not seem easy. With Sai Sudharsan at the other end also struggling for fluency , Gill felt it right to take on Glenn Maxwell, making a comeback into the RCB XI after a few games out. He almost got it right, wide of long-on, but Cameron Green made good ground to his left in the deep and pulled off a diving effort. Superb catching but the wicket is a result of the RCB bowlers managing to keep Gill quiet.

B Sai Sudharsan has had a super start to his IPL career. He already has 841 runs at an average of over 42 and a strike rate above 133. Titans have liked him at the top of the order, mainly at No. 3, for the stability he provides as an excellent player against spin. He also has the ability to score at a very rapid rate, like he displayed in the last game against Delhi Capitals with a 39-ball 65 (strike rate of 166.66).

Even though 'struggle' might be a touch too tough on him, Sai Sudharsan has not really enjoyed batting against fast bowling. In IPL 2024, he strikes at 137 for one dismissal against spin but only at 122 against pace and has been out eight times (average 21.8) against fast bowling. In IPL 2023, he was superb against fast bowling too - S/R 148 - but had five dismissals against them. RCB today have just the three fast bowlers in their XI. A chance for Sai Sudharsan to rectify his record against pace, or better, feast on spin?

Swapnil Singh continues his dream run in IPL 2024. He was brought in for his first game only in RCB's previous outing, their ninth in the season. He responded with two wickets in his first over, bowling the penultimate one of the powerplay. He was unafraid to get hit and finished with 2 for 40 off three overs.

Today he takes the first over, and the result?

Swapnil got his first one to jump off a good length one, which Saha defended. Saha then managed to whip one through midwicket for his first boundary. On the last ball of the over, with the field up on the off side, Swapnil tossed one up around off and middle, landing it on a length again. Saha makes room to go inside out but only gets a thick outside edge to short third.

How does Saha fare against left-arm spin, you ask. I AskCricinfo.

RCB have chosen to go with one quick less, leaving Lockie Ferguson out. And they also start with four spinners in their XI - Karn Sharma, Swapnil Singh, Glenn Maxwell and Will Jacks - and just three fast bowlers in Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal and Cameron Green.

Head-to-head in T20s:

Gill vs Siraj - 70 runs, 44 balls, 0 dismissals
Gill vs Green - 43 runs, 15 balls, 0 dismissals
Saha vs Siraj - 55 runs, 45 balls, 3 dismissals
Miller vs Maxwell - 43 runs, 38 balls, 1 dismissal

Pssst... How has Gill fared against spin in IPL 2024? AskCricinfo and see for yourself!

Faf du Plessis lauds RCB bowlers' efforts in the last two games. Glenn Maxwell is back in the XI for RCB.

Shubman Gill does not think the wicket will change much, but wanted to chase as well. In the last couple of games our batting and bowling has come out well, he says. Titans are unchanged.

GT: Gill (capt), Saha (wk), Sai Sudharsan, Omarzai, Miller, Tewatia, Shahrukh, Rashid, Sai Kishore, Noor, Mohit

Reserves: Warrier, Sharath, Vijay, Suthar, Nalkande

RCB: du Plessis (capt), Kohli, Jacks, Patidar, Maxwell, Green, Karthik (wk), Karn, Siraj, Dayal, Swapnil

Reserves: Lomror, Rawat, Himanshu, Akashdeep, Vyshak

A look at the numbers for RCB batters against spin in IPL 2024 in the middle overs (7 to 16).

Virat Kohli has faced a lot of those - understandably, since he is also the leading run-getter in the season - but has not really teed off. He started the season by hitting spin and pace but as the tournament progressed, RCB's batting did not fire much and Kohli had to resort to milking spin than necessarily hitting them. Which is why Rajat Patidar's return to form must be so welcome for them.