Gujarat Titans in top-two mix, SRH on the brink
That's that then. We leave you with a teaser from our final report.
Another Gujarat Titans match, and we are again left wondering how they will go if their top three fall early with Rashid Khan at no. 7. Once again, Shubman Gill, Jos Buttler and B Sai Sudharsan dominated a bowling attack, albeit the listless Sunrisers Hyderabad one, to post 224 on a black-soil pitch that was slow to begin with. All three of them were now in the top four run-getters this IPL with Sudharsan reclaiming the orange cap with his 23-ball 48.
GT failed to defend 209 in the last game, which did raise the question, but that was a par score. Here, SRH’s ordinary start with the all – arguably the worst all year – set them the platform for a clearly above-par total. The GT bowlers then bashed the hard lengths to stifle the SRH batters despite a 74 for Abhishek Sharma. Prasidh Krishna bowled four overs for just 19 and two wickets to bring the purple cap as well to GT.
GT were now the joint leaders on the points table, but with a game in hand on Mumbai Indians. SRH were left on the brink, each of their remaining games a must-win affair but still no guarantee to take them through to the playoffs.
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Rashid 3-0-50-0: 44 needed of last over
The game is over as a contest but Rashid Khan's lean run continues as Pat Cummins and Nitish Reddy hit him for three sixes. This can hurt their net run rate, which could be crucial for a top-two finish. How long before they get worried about Rashid?
This is his worst economy rate for a match in which he has bowled at least one full over.
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Siraj misses out on a hat-trick: 149 for 6 in 17
Mohammed Siraj returns to follow Krishna's lead and keep banging into the pitch. He gets Aniket Verma caught at long-on and Kamindu Mendis on the strangle down leg. Pat Cummins keeps the yorker out on the hat-trick ball.
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Krishna gets Klaasen and purple cap: 141 for 4 in 15.3
GT decide to bowl out Prasidh Krishna as early as the 16th over because they sense they can shut the game right there. And Krishna delivers with the wicket of Heinrich Klaasen. He has just been superb. Simple and superb. No slower balls, nothing fancy. Just bang the ball around 8-9m length. He also reaches 19 wickets now, past Josh Hazlewood's 18.
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Abhishek gone for 74: 139 for 3 in 15
It got too much in the end. You have the best-possible over, and it is still only par. Abhishek Sharma needs to hit a boundary off the last ball of the 15th over to make it a par over. Ishant Sharma bowls the hard length, the ball gets big, and he ends up hitting it up. Abhishek is gone for 74 off 41.
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Krishna 3-0-14-1: 127 for 2 in 14
Just one boundary off the three overs of Prasidh Krishna so far. He has just bashed the hard lengths from his height, and has got the pitch to respond. It's 15.63 needed per over now.
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Rashid 2-0-29-0: 123 for 2 in 13
Rashid Khan has struggled again. Just one dot ball in two overs, 29 runs off them, but still that is just what the asking rate is. The other end keeps raising the asking rate.
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Fifty for Abhishek: 107 for 2 in 11.3
Abhishek Sharma moves across the stumps and plays the pick up over long leg to reach 55 off 28, but this is only just hanging in. They still need 118 in 51 balls.
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Kishan gone for 13 off 17: 82 for 2 in 9.3
Ishan Kishan has no option but to slog, and Gerald Coetzee's hard lengths get the top edge. Caught at deep third, and we now have SRH's last hope coming in: Heinrich Klaasen. They need 13.61 per over for 10.3 overs.
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Asking rate goes past 13: 80 for 1 in 9
Washington Sundar is brought on for the two left-hand batters. He bowls over the wicket, cramps them up and concedes no boundary. It is slipping away from SRH quickly. Ishan Kishan is trying hard to hit out but is not timing anything. Only one boundary in the last three overs, that too a top edge off Gerald Coetzee.
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Krishna 2-0-11-1: 63 for 1 in 7
SRH were 45 for 0 in four overs when Prasidh Krishna was introduced. He has bowled two superb overs of high pace into the pitch, and has brought the scoring rate down to seven an over. The asking rate has jumped to 12.37 an over. The pressure is rising for SRH.
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GT win powerplay: 57 for 1 in 6
You might point to a good score of 57 for 1, which it is, but SRH are chasing 225. The asking rate is precisely two a ball now. And we saw how scoring got a little difficult in the second half of the first innings.
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Rashid stunner sends Head back: 49 for 1 in 4.3
Prasidh Krishna's steep bounce draws the false shot from Travis Head on the pull, but it looks like it is falling safe towards deep midwicket. Rashid Khan, though, runs to his right from deep square and puts in a last-second dive to complete a stunner. The atmosphere at the ground is electric, and the DJ plays the Pathan title track.
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A change for the worse: 25 for 0 in 2
Ishant Sharma begins round the wicket, cramps the batters up, concedes two singles and two leg-byes in the first five balls, and for some reason moves over the wicket. He offers width, angle and a full slower ball for Abhishek Sharma to loft him over wide mid-off for his second six.
Was Ishant looking to buy a wicket there? Whatever it was, it didn't work.
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SRH start with a bang: 15 for 0 in 1
Abhishek Sharma charges at Mohammed Siraj and hits him over wide long-off for a six. Travis Head crunches a four through the covers the second ball he faces, We have a game on here.
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GT get 224
After that start, 240 looked on but there was a brief slowdown after the Gill run-out. Cummins and Undakat finish well. Seventy-five in the last seven. Sai Sudharsan says the pitch was not easy. Slow, he says.
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Buttler gone for 63: 206 for 3 in 18.4
Pat Cummins has pulled things back after a rare ordinary first over. In 16 balls after that, he has conceded just onje boundary. Now, in the 19th, he has had Washington Sundar dropped, but on the next ball he goes wide and out of Buttler's reach, drawing the mis-hit to long-on. Washington Sundar is 15 off 14. Will that innings prove crucial?
Fifty for Buttler: 188 for 2 in 17
Jos Buttler looks tired but is still imparting enough power behind his shots. He gets to 50 off 31 with a reverse-hit off Zeeshan, but it is a shot earlier in the over that stands out. A six down the ground off the back foot. That's a shot the man behind the wicket, Heinrich Klaasen, has made all his own.
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First boundary in 18 balls: 170 for 2 in 15.4
Jos Buttler has to take a risk, premeditate and heave Pat Cummins wide of long-on to get the first boundary since Shubman Gill's run-out. Buttler is 37 off 25, Washington Sundar 7 off 8. Can SRH make something of this?
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Gill run-out for 76: 149 for 2 in 13 overs
First unforced error for Gujarat Titans. Jos Buttler nurdles one around the corner, Shubman Gill calls him through for one, but ambles through. Heinrich Klaasen with some sorcery there to deflect the throw onto the wicket. Had he collected and broken the wicket, Gill would have been in. This just caught Gill napping. Gone for 76 off 38.
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Now Cummins drops a regulation catch: 139 for 1 in 11.5
Harshal Patel has been bowling slower balls at Shubman Gill. When he gets on strike, Buttler reckons there can't be four slower balls in a row and tries to take the full ball on. Ends up skying it, Pat Cummins at mid-off has enough time get back and under it, but completely misjudges it and watches it fall behind him. Doesn't even get a touch on it. Buttler 22 off 14 when reprieved.
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SRH don't get dots in: 132 for 1 in 11
10 The number of dots balls in the first 10 overs, the lowest for this IPL. The second- and third-lowest also belong to GT: 11 against LSG, 12 against RR
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Fifty for Gill: 119 for 1 in 9.5
Shubman Gill gets to his fifty in just 25 balls. He has barely ever mis-hit a single shot. Okay to set hyperbole aside, three false shots. Still to have 88% control in a 25-ball fifty is incredible.
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Second-quickest to 2000: 93 for 1 in 8
54 Number of innings it has taken B Sai Sudharsan to reach 2000 T20 runs. Only Shaun Marsh reached there quicker, in 53 innings.
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Finally a wicket: 87 for 1 in 6.5
Tells you something about B Sai Sudharsan that he will make the umpire raise the finger even when the whole stadium knows he has edged this through to the keeper. He just loves to be batting out in the middle. He looks to run Zeeshan fine of short third, and ends up playing him into the gloves of the keeper. It's a wrong'un. Gone for 48 off 23.
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GT's biggest powerplay ever: 82 for 0
78 GT's previous highest in the powerplay, against LSG, almost to this day two years ago. It was Saha and Gill then, it's Sai and Gill now
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SRH still mentally in Maldives? 71 for 0 in 5
Add to all the sloppy bowling some poor fielding too. Jaydev Unadkat, the only one with a decent over so far, lets one slide through at short third for four. Harshal Patel, the bowler, also offers a full toss. An 18-run over follows. GT are not having to lift their bat in anger.
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Gill accepts gifs now: 53 for 0 in 4
That's the fourth over, bowled by Pat Cummins to Shubman Gill. I don't remember a poorer start with the ball in a long long time. After the Shami horror, Cummins has offered Gill three half-volleys, one of them on the pads.
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Shami keeps conceding freebies: 36 for 0 in 3
That;'s the third over, bowled by Mohammed Shami to B Sai Sudharsan. Shami just not bowling to his field, giving him width, straying down the pads, just getting hit all over. The orange cap has gone back to B Sai Sudharsan.
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Risk-free start again: 16 for 0 in 2
In the first two overs, GT have taken what they have been offered. One loose ball down the leg side from Mohammed Shami hit by Shubman Gill for six, but otherwise no forcing the issue.
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SRH chase, Coetzee comes in for GT
Gujarat Titans rolled out a black-soil pitch for Sunrisers Hyderabad, much like they did for the power-packed Mumbai Indians, but lost the toss again and were asked to bat first. Even against MI, GT lost the toss but defended their 196 for 8 comfortably.
GT made one change to the side that lost to 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi's hundred. Gerald Coetzee replaced Karim Janat. Only one change meant Sherfane Rutherford stayed out. Unlike the last match, he was named in the substitutes. They still had only three overseas players in the XI. They could have easily played Rutherford in the first innings and replaced him with a bowler in the second innings. They now had six bowlers including Washington Sundar in their bat-first XI that had Rashid Khan at No. 7.
Ishant Sharma or Arshad Khan now remained the likely Impact Player unless there be a collapse in which case Rutherford could bat.
Sunrisers Hyderabad made no changes to the side that beat Chennai Super Kings in Chennai for the first time. They were hoping they could break their duck against GT in Ahmedabad as well.
With 12 points from nine games, GT were favourites to qualify for the playoffs but needed wins to make sure they ended in the top two. SRH had only six points from nine games, playing every match as a must-win game.
Gujarat Titans 1 Shubman Gill (capt.), 2 B Sai Sudharsan, 3 Jos Buttler (wk), 4 Shahrukh Khan, 5 Washington Sundar, 6 Rahul Tewatia, 7 Rashid Khan, 8 Gerald Coetzee, 9 Mohammed Siraj, 10 R Sai Kishore, 11 Prasidh Krishna
Impact Player list Ishant Sharma, Mahipal Lomror, Anuj Rawat, Arshad Khan, Sherfane Rutherford
Sunrisers Hyderabad 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Ishan Kishan, 3 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 4 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 5 Aniket Verma, 6 Kamindu Mendis, 7 Pat Cummins (capt.), 8 Harshal Patel, 9 Jaydev Unadkat, 10 Zeeshan Ansari, 11 Mohammed Shami
Impact Player list Abhinav Manohar, Sachin Baby, Travis Head, Rahul Chahar, Wiaan Mulder
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Conditions report
The same pitch that GT used to out-manoeuvre Mumbai Indians early on in the season. So black soil, slower, lower bounce. There is one square boundary shorter than the other. Prasidh Krishna enjoyed banging the ball into the pitch in that game. Pat Cummins will want to do the same.
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Climate challenge
This is not going to be an easy match for these teams. It is 43 degrees right now in Ahmedabad, according to AccuWeather. Likely to come down to 41 by the time the match starts. The lowest it will get to is 39 degrees. Dry remorseless heat. Take care, y'all.
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Different fights for GT and SR
Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad are face to face with two completely different thoughts on their mind. GT don't want any misstep because they want a top-two finish, and also know that even 16 points might not be enough for top four. They sit on 12 from nine. Ideally they want to win at least three in the remaining five.
SRH, runners-up from the last year, are actually looking for survival. They can't even see what their ceiling is right now. They must just win every match, survive that day and see how far it can take them. If they win all five of their remaining matches, they can go to 16. If they lose two, they are out. Who knwos, even winning four or five might not be enough. So one survival at a time.
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