GT vs SRH IPL 2023: Gujarat Titans enter playoffs, sun sets on Hyderabad | Cricket News – Times of India

AHMEDABAD: The best thing about watching Gujarat Titans opener Shubman Gill bat is he makes batting looks simple and pleasing to the eye. Seldom does his innings include any agricultural hoicks, as he again demonstrated during a well-made century against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL on Monday.
Hitting 13 exquisitely-timed boundaries, including two sublime straight drives, and a six in his 101 off 58 balls, Gill guided the defending champions to 188/9 despite a wobble in the death overs.
The dominance provided by Gill was sustained by new-ball bowlers Mohammed Shami (4/21) and Yash Dayal when the Titans bowled. Together they took four wickets in the powerplay to reduce SRH to 45/4 before Mohit Sharma (4/28) got into the act and took three wickets in his first spell.

Only a 68-run partnership between Heinrich Klaasen and Bhuvneshwar staved off an even bigger defeat. SRH were restricted to 154/9, losing by 43 runs.
The defeat ended their chance of qualifying for the playoffs while Titans became the first team to qualify this season and confirm a top-two slot, with 18 points from 13 matches.
Shami dismissed Anmolpreet Singh, Rahul Tripathi and captain Aiden Markram while Dayal, playing his first match after the hiding he got against Rinku Singh, had Abhishek Sharma caught behind.

Sharma then got into the act with his good-length deliveries to reduce the visitors to 59/7. He then returned to have Klaasen, who made 64 (44b; 4x4m 3×6) caught at long off by David Miller.
Earlier, after Markram won the toss and inserted Titans in, Bhuvneshwar (5/30) had Wriddhiman Saha caught without scoring at second slip by Abhishek Sharma. From there on, Gill and Sai Sudharsan, replacing the injured Vijay Shankar, put on an exhibition of boundary hitting.
Sudharsan began the onslaught with a punched cover drive off left-arm pacer Jansen’s bowling. Bhuvneshwar’s next over was greeted by Gill with a sublime straight drive, while, at the other end, Sudharsan helped himself to two boundaries.

The Afghan left-arm pacer was smashed for 18 runs, which included four boundaries, in his first over as the Titans raced to 65 in the powerplay. The southpaw’s scoop over fine leg off Jansen’s bowling in the 11th over was the first six of the match while Gill pulled a long hop from Sharma over deep midwicket in the next over for his only maximum.
The 147-run partnership was broken by Jansen.

(AI image)
Watch IPL 2023: Gujarat Titans become first team to qualify for playoffs