Gujarat seal top-two finish in IPL as Royals Boult away with Lucknow romp
Ater Gujarat restricted Chennai to a below-par 133/5 despite a 49-ball 53 from Gaikwad, Saha carried his bat through the innings to help them chase down the total with five balls to spare
Gujarat Titans’ bowlers put up a fine all-round show to choke Chennai Super Kings, especially by not conceding a boundary in the death overs, before Wriddhiman Saha starred with an unbeaten 67 to complete a comfortable seven-wicket win in match 62 of IPL 2022 at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday.
Ater Gujarat restricted Chennai to a below-par 133/5 despite a 49-ball 53 from Ruturaj Gaikwad, Saha carried his bat through the innings to help them chase down the total with five balls to spare. The result also means that Gujarat have confirmed their spot in the top two of the points table, which means they will get to play in Qualifier 1 at Kolkata on May 24.
Saha got Gujarat off to a brisk start in pursuit of 134, taking three boundaries off Mukesh Choudhary in the opening over, two of them coming through an inner edge past stumps and top-edge over the keeper. In Choudhary’s next over, Saha was dropped on 21 by Gaikwad at point amidst the right-hander collecting two boundaries.
From there onwards, it was no looking back for Saha, pulling Simarjeet Singh over deep mid-wicket for six in the fith over followed by thumping one over the bowler’s head for a boundary. Saha’s fast and furious start allowed Shubman Gill to take his time and bring out the pull as well as sweep to take boundaries off Mitchell Santner.
But Matheesha Pathirana, the pacer with an uncanny resemblance to countryman Lasith Malinga’s sling-arm bowling action, bagged his maiden IPL wicket by trapping Gill lbw with a full, pacy delivery which hit him low on the pad as the right-hander atempted to flick. Gill reviewed but was unable to overturn the decision, ending the 59-run opening partnership.
Mathew Wade got going with a brace of boundaries off Pathirana but fell while trying to lot against Moeen Ali in the 12th over and mistimed to long-on. Two overs later, Pathirana got his second wicket when his off-cuter took the leading edge off Hardik Pandya’s atempted flick and was caught by mid-on.
Saha, meanwhile, hung around to reach his third fity of the tournament in 42 balls and shared an unbeaten 37-run stand with David Miller to take Gujarat past the finishing line. Fitingly, it was Saha who hit the winning runs - guiding one past short third man off Pathirana to give Gujarat their tenth win of the tournament out of 13 matches.
Earlier, Gaikwad began really well for his 49ball 53 but gradually slowed down as the innings progressed. He found an ally in Moeen Ali but Chennai never found the acceleration and big runs they needed, faltering badly in the last five overs as the baters couldn’t hit a single boundary in that phase.
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Trent Boult led an inspired bowling atack to help Rajasthan Royals down Lucknow Super Giants by 24 runs and edge closer to an IPL play-off berth on Sunday.
Opener Yashasvi Jasiwal made 41 off 29 balls to guide Royals to 178 for six, a total their bowlers defended by restricting Lucknow to 1548 in the second match of the day at Mumbai.
Boult, a let-arm quick, struck twice on successive deliveries to send back Quinton de Kock, for seven, Ayush Badoni, for nought, to dent Lucknow’s chase and returned impressive figures of 2-18.
Royals, who won the inaugural Indian Premier League title in 2008 under late Australian legend Shane Warne, replaced Lucknow in second with both teams on 16 points and a win needed in their remaining match to book a play-off spot.
Fast bowler Prasidh Krishna sent back skipper KL Rahul for 10 before Krunal Pandya, who made 25 before falling to Ravichandran Ashwin off a relay catch between Jos Butler and Riyan Parag, put together 65 runs with Deepak Hooda.
Hooda kept up the charge in his 39-ball 59 but fell stumped off leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and took with him Lucknow’s hopes of a chase.
Obed Mccoy took two more including Jason Holder, for one, to expose Lucknow’s tail and Prasidh Krishna took down Marcus Stoinis, for 27, as Lucknow, one of the two newcomers alongside Gujarat Titans, remained short of their target.