KKR vs GT | Gujarat’s scintillating top three continue to dominate as Gill’s 90 overpowers timid Kolkata

Asked to bat first by Ajinkya Rahane, Gujarat Titans found going tough against the new ball as Vaibhav Arora swung the new ball miles while Moeen Ali maintained a disciplined line of length to curb the run flow. In fact, it was not until the fifth over that Shubman Gill registered his first boundary of the night, and doubled it up for good measure to make the powerplay score read a decent 45/0. Rahane chose to stick with Moeen for one more over, and it was enough of an invite for the GT skipper who began with a maximum and then struck two more fours to get himself up and running. Sai Sudharsan followed up the act at the other end with the occassional boundary of his own as soon as he spotted a loose delivery and by the halfway stage, the partnership had ticked along to 89 with both batters bringing up their respective half-centuries in a 15-run 11th over by Rana. It took the faintest of edges from an attempted cut for Andre Russell to finally dispatch Sai and break the 114-run partnership, yet it just invited more carnage as Jos Buttler announced his arrival with three boundaries on the trot against the Caribbean medium pacer. The Englishman then added two more in the 15th, the latter a fortuitous result as Vaibhav dropped a dolly, before Gill added salt to their wounds by going after the coveted spin duo of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy — both men ended wicketless while conceding 69 runs in their combined eight overs. When Gill smacked Vaibhav for a four and a six in the 17th a century looked inevtiable, only for the youngster to hole out for 90 and end 10 short of the mark. Nevertheless, Buttler kept motoring along with two more fours in the final over to end up unbeaten on 41 off 23, the effort enough to take GT to a competitive 198/3.

In response, Kolkata began ominously when Rahmanullah Gurbaaz lasted just four balls on his season debut before being trapped plumb by Mohammed Siraj. Sunil Narine and Ajinkya Rahane tried to give the team some impetus thereafter but the former was struggling to connect cleanly, and ultimately holed out off a half-tracker down leg by Rashid Khan in the final over of the powerplay with the score 43/2. The wicket marked the beginning of a five-over streak where Venkatesh Iyer combined with his skipper for just 26 runs in five overs and when Rahane did break the shackles with a four and six in the 11th, Venky departed striaght after to Sai Kishore to cease control of the encounter once again. When Washington Sundar had Rahane stumped six balls later, the hosts seemed to be left with little chance despite the explosive presence of Rinku Singh and Andre Russell — the latter finishing the over with 10 runs off two balls. Tight overs from Sai and Prasidh Krishna further levied pressure, culminating in Russell also trying to step out against Rashid to hand Buttler a second stumping on the night. Two balls later, Prasidh took a stunner off his own bowling to send Ramandeep Singh packing, and then resigned Moeen to a two-ball duck to shut off any hopes that remained for the Purple Army. Angkrish Raghuvanshi provided some late thrills in his 27-run cameo, but it was merely consolation as Gujarat completed a comprehensive victory over the defending champions.