Defending champions Gujarat Titans registered their third win of IPL 2023 after defeating Punjab Kings by 6 wickets in match number 18 of the season at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali. Batting first, PBKS posted a total of 153 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. In reply, GT scored 154 for 4 in 19.5 overs.
PBKS lost Prabhsimran Singh in the second ball of the match who tried to take on Mohammed Shami but ended up giving a catch to Rashid Khan at short mid-wicket. In the fourth over, PBKS lost another wicket at the score of 28 as the skipper Shikhar Dhawan was caught by Alazarri Joseph on the delivery of Joshua Little.
After that, Matt Short and Bhanuka Rajapaksa tried to take the innings further. Short got out after scoring 36 runs off 24 balls with six fours and a maximum. Rajapaksa and Jitesh Sharma then added 37 runs for the fourth wicket. Jitesh got after scoring 25 off 23 with five boundaries, while Rajapaksa played a steady knock of 20 runs in 26 deliveries.
Sam Curran also scored at run-a-ball after that but Shahrukh added the finishing touches. He got out after smashing 22 off just 9 deliveries as PBKS crossed 150 runs. For GT, Mohit Sharma scalped 2 wickets by conceding 18 runs in his four overs. Mohammed Shami, Rashid Khan, Alzarri Joseph, and Joshua Little shared a wicket each.
GT won the game in another last over thriller
Chasing the winning total, Wriddhiman Saha and Shubman Gill gave a firing start to GT by adding 48 runs for the first wicket in 4.4 overs. Saha got out after scoring 30 off 19 with five boundaries. After that, Gill played an anchor role for GT and added another 41 runs with Sai Sudharsan (19 off 20) for the second wicket. Skipper Hardik Pandya didn’t look in great touch and got out after scoring just 8 runs.
David Miller then took charge with Gill and GT took the match to the last over with 7 runs remaining. Sam Curran gave a twist in the match by bowling Gill out in the second ball of the over. It was looking like another last ball thriller or a super over was on the cards but Rahul Tewatia held his nerves and hit a boundary on the second last ball of the match to win the game for GT.
Here’s how fans reacted to Gujarat’s another win:
Rahul tewatia ?? pic.twitter.com/BCB20Piryt
— Pratham (@Pratham7340) April 13, 2023
The most consistent and underrated team in IPL without any hype or cringe posts . Hardik as a captain is superb , he should be made the T20I captain as well . Every person in that team is a genuine match winner . Looks like they’ll be winning it the 2nd time as well
— Sathwik Hv (@sathwik_hv) April 13, 2023
