Gujarat Titans' ‘big three’ - Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler – made light work of the Chennai Super Kings, chasing down a modest 158 for seven to win their Tata IPL match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday afternoon by eight wickets with 20 balls to spare.
Openers Sudharsan and Gill added 58 for the first wicket before Gill was smartly stumped down the legside by Sanju Samson off Afghan wrist spinner Noor Ahmad for 33, but Sudharsan compiled a match-winning 87 from just 46 balls with four fours and seven sixes.
Former England captain Buttler added 37 to a second-wicket partnership of 97 which was ended with just four runs required by Dewald Brevis, who held onto a stunning, diving catch at deep midwicket to remove Sudharsan off the bowling of left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein. Buttler finished unbeaten on 39 from 30 balls.
The victory was set up by a Kagiso Rabada-inspired Gujarat bowling attack, which strangled the early life out of the home side. Rabada removed the in-form Samson (11) with a fast leg-cutter which flew off the edge to ‘keeper Buttler and followed up with a short ball to Urvil Patel (4), which the batsman mistimed to Jason Holder at mid on.
Rabada claimed a third wicket in his second spell to finish with 3-25 with new ball partner Mohammad Siraj (1-23) as efficient as always. Former West Indian captain Jason Holder conceded just 22 runs from his four overs in the middle of the innings.
The Super Kings staged a remarkable recovery to reach 158 for seven, having staggered to 43 for four at the halfway stage. But captain and opener Ruturaj Gaikwad carried his bat for a sedate 74 from 60 balls, striking some late boundaries to lift his strike rate just above a run-a-ball.
Shivam Dube (22 off 17) and English allrounder Jamie Overton (18 off six) delivered brief cameos to give the men in yellow an outside chance of victory, but the total always looked at least 20 runs short of par – and so it transpired.
The result sees Gujarat move up to fifth on the log with four wins and eight points from eight games, while the stuttering Super Kings remain in sixth with just three wins and six points from their eight matches.
Gujarat Titans: Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (captain), Jos Buttler (wkt), Shahrukh Khan, Washington Sundar, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Arshad Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Manav Suthar
Impact subs: Rahul Tewatia, Anuj Rawat, Glenn Phillips, Kulwant Khejroliya, Nishant Sindhu
Chennai Super Kings: Sanju Samson (wkt), Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), Urvil Patel, Dewald Brevis, Shivam Dube, Kartik Sharma, Jamie Overton, Akeal Hosein, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh
Impact subs: Sarfaraz Khan, Mukesh Choudhary, Prashant Veer, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Matthew Short