Rabada triggers rare loss for Titans

GUJARAT Titans lost only their second IPL game on Tuesday when Kagiso Rabada took four wickets for the second match running before Shikhar Dhawan’s halfcentury led Punjab Kings to a dominant win.

Liam Livingstone smashed three sixes to complete an eight-wicket victory with four overs to spare, moving Punjab up to fifth and stopping league leader Gujarat from putting one foot in the playoffs.

Gujarat won the toss and chose to bat but made just 8-143 as South Africa’s Rabada produced man-of-the-match figures of 4-33.

The Titans’ only standout was Sai Sudharsan, who hit a gutsy 65 not out, the 20-yearold’s first half-century of the IPL in only his fourth innings.

Gujarat lost both openers in the power play. Shubman Gill was spectacularly run out for nine in the third over and Wriddhiman Saha was caught by a back-pedalling Mayank Agarwal off Rabada.

Gujarat’s top scorer of the season Hardik Pandya fell for just one when he failed to move his feet and thick-edged Rishi Dhawan to keeper Jitesh Sharma as he looked to drive.

David Miller tried to get the scoreboard moving but misjudged Livingstone’s off-spin to give Rabada a simple catch on the long-on boundary when he had made 11.

Rahul Tewatia was also out for 11 when he tried to reverse sweep a wide, slow Rabada ball.

Rashid Khan edged Rabada’s next ball to the keeper for a golden duck, and Lockie Ferguson slogged Rabada straight to Livingstone at long-on.

Punjab’s Jonny Bairstow, promoted to opener, departed for one in the third over after top-edging Mohammed Shami to Pradeep Sangwan at fine leg.

But fellow opener Dhawan and Sri Lanka’s Bhanuka Rajapaksa made quick work of the modest target.