Gujarat Titans' IPL 2023 clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad turned out to be no contest as the defending champions brushed aside their opponents without breaking a sweat. An expectant crowd at the Narendra Modi Stadium witnessed a marvellous maiden IPL century from Shubman Gill in the first innings, setting the premise for a commanding 34-run victory.
Fighting for their survival in the 16th edition of the tournament, Sunrisers Hyderabad got off to an abysmal start in the second innings, losing opener Anmolpreet Singh to Mohammed Shami in the first over of the chase. An in-form Abhishek Sharma succumbed against Yash Dayal in the following over to compound SRH's misery.
The procession continued for the home side as Shami got rid of Rahul Tripathi and opposition skipper Aiden Markram in successive overs to scalp three of SRH's top four batters in the powerplay. The visitors kept imploding after the powerplay as Mohit Sharma bagged two wickets in his very first over of the match.
Heinrich Klaasen's fighting half-century provided much-needed resilience to the SRH innings, but his solid stand with Bhuvneshwar Kumar was brought to a halt by Shami in his last over of the night to reclaim the Purple Cap. The home side, donning a special Lavender jersey, ran out comfortable victors with an injury to Noor Ahmad being their only blemish in the contest.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar's five-for wrestle back the momentum after Shubman Gill's maiden IPL ton
Earlier in the match, it was Sunrisers Hyderabad's skipper Aiden Markram, who won the toss and elected to bowl first on a lively surface in Ahmedabad. His decision paid instant dividends as veteran Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed the dangerous Wriddhiman Saha for a three-ball duck in the very first over of the match.
However, the pressure was released by the visitors after an erratic over from Marco Jansen. Things went from bad to worse for the Orange Army as Gujarat Titans' young batting duo of Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan put their foot on the accelerator, with the former smashing Fazalhaq Farooqi for four consecutive boundaries in an over.
While the young duo made batting look easy in the middle overs, the SRH bowlers were not helped by sloppy efforts on the field by their teammates. Sudharsan, who fell just three runs short of a deserved half-century, brought an end to a mammoth 147-run stand with Gill, the highest for GT and the second-highest this season.
Meanwhile, Gill continued his scorching form with the bat, racing away towards his maiden IPL century after missing out on the milestone against Lucknow Super Giants earlier this month. Even though SRH kept chipping away at the wickets, Gill maintained his concentration, breaching the three-figure mark to register his maiden century in IPL.
His innings lost a bit of its suave after Bhuvneshwar Kumar contributed to four wickets in the final over of the first innings, returning with impeccable figures of 5/30 to minimise the damage in the death overs. He became only the third bowler to scalp two five-fors in the history of the competition.
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