In a clash between new entrants, Gujarat Titans (GT) emerged victorious, defeating Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the final over of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) on Monday.
Given 159 runs to chase, GT ended up winning with two balls to spare registering a win by five wickets over their fellow new entrant in this season’s IPL.
Batting first, LSG got off to the worst possible start, losing their captain K L Rahul on the very first ball. Fellow opener Quinton de Kock was also sent to the stands soon after having scored seven runs with LSG at 13/2.
LSG’s top order completely failed leaving the team languishing at 29/4. It was up to Deepak Hooda and Ayush Badoni who took a stand to take LSG to a good total. While Hooda scored 55, Badoni score 54. Krunal Pandya added a valuable 21 runs to take the total to a respectable 158 at the end of their 20 overs.
Mohammed Shami was the pick of the bowlers for GT, nicking three wickets, while Varun Aaron picked up two and Rashid Khan got one.
Needing 159 to win, GT also lost opener Shubman Gill quickly, who went without scoring. From there, Matthew Wade played a cautious innings scoring 30 runs off 29 balls as wickets fell at the other end.
In a match that pitted the Pandya brothers against each other, Krunal got the better of Hardik, dismissing the GT skipper, who scored 33. Krunal then chose to not celebrate the wicket of his brother following the dismissal.
With their skipper gone and the team at 72/3, David Miller took over and added another 30 runs to the score before departing. His dismissal brought on Rahul Tewatia who had starred for the Rajasthan Royals in the previous edition.
Tewatia did not fail to impress, scoring a quick-fire 40 runs off 24 deliveries with two sixes and five boundaries. He was helped by Abhinav Manohar at the other end, who added a valuable 15 runs to guide the team to victory.
Dushmantha Chameera took two wickets for LSG, while Krunal Pandya, Avesh Khan, and Deepak Hooda getting one each.
