Gujarat Titans held their nerves to win by 8 runs against Kolkata Knight Riders in what was an absolute thriller of an Indian Premier League match on Saturday. Andre Russell’s all-round dream show with the bat and ball almost threatened to take the game away but GT held on to clinch another two points to reclaim their spot at the top of the table.
| Team | Pld | Won | Lost | Net RR | Pts | Form | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GT | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0.396 | 12 | WWWLW |
| 2 | RR | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0.432 | 10 | WWLWL |
| 3 | RCB | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0.251 | 10 | WWLWW |
| 4 | LSG | 7 | 4 | 3 | 0.124 | 8 | LWLWW |
| 5 | SRH | 6 | 4 | 2 | -0.077 | 8 | WWWWL |
| 6 | DC | 7 | 3 | 4 | 0.715 | 6 | LWLWL |
| 7 | KKR | 8 | 3 | 5 | 0.080 | 6 | LLLLW |
| 8 | PBKS | 7 | 3 | 4 | -0.562 | 6 | LLWLW |
| 9 | CSK | 7 | 2 | 5 | -0.534 | 4 | WLWLL |
| 10 | MI | 7 | 0 | 7 | -0.892 | 0 | LLLLL |
After winning the toss and choosing to bat first (the first team to do so this season) Gujarat Titans posted a 156-run total that seemed to be just enough, thanks to a brilliant bowling effort from their bowlers coupled with some outstanding fielding.
With Russell raising hell out there, two catches by Abhinav Manohar (to dismiss Venkatesh Iyer) and Lockie Ferguson proved to be important for Titans.
KKR were in trouble early in the chase, after an excellent opening spell from Mohammed Shami (2/20) and Ferguson (1/33). They lost four wickets with just 34 on the board as Sam Billings (4), Sunil Narine (5), Nitish Rana (2) and captain Shreyas Iyer (12) walked back in quick succession.
There was a small fightback through Rinku Singh (35) but Venkatesh Iyer (17) could not stay long enough for it to become a significant partnership. While Rashid Khan (2/22) and Yash Dayal (2/42) did enough to retain the momentum in the middle overs, Russell threatened to take the game away but was dismissed in the last over for 48 runs, only a few runs shy of the target.
Earlier, GT captain Hardik Pandya’s third fifty of the season was the only bright spot in their otherwise lacklustre batting display for GT. Although Shubman Gill (5) departed early, Wriddhiman Saha (25) provided some support to contribute in the 75-run stand for the second wicket whilst David Miller (27) also tried to bail the team out in his 20-ball stay at the crease. However, there was not enough resistance as the batting line-up continued to succumb to the KKR bowlers in quick succession.
The KKR bowlers then conceded only 29 runs in the last five overs. After Shivam Mavi (1/36) dismissed Miller, Tim Southee (3/24) set the tone for a disciplined bowling effort to pick the wickets of Pandya and Rashid Khan. The rest of the batting line-up was cleaned up by Andre Russell who picked up magnificent bowling figures of 4/5 in the final over (his only over of the innings) to become the first bowler in the tournament to pick four wickets in a spell of one over or fewer.
