GUJARAT TITANS defeated defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders by 39 runs at Eden Gardens on Monday to record their sixth win in eight matches and maintain their position at the top of the IPL table.
Batting first, Gujarat made 198-3 after a 114-run opening stand between captain Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan. Gill scored 90 off 55 balls, while Sudharsan made 52. Kolkata were held to 159-8 in response, with Ajinkya Rahane top-scoring with 50.
This was Kolkata’s fifth defeat in eight matches.
After being asked to bat, Gujarat started strongly with Sudharsan playing the attacking role early. Gill, who was initially cautious, accelerated later and hit Moeen Ali for a six and two fours in the same over to reach his third half-century of the season.
Sudharsan brought up his fifth 50-plus score of the season and crossed 400 runs, overtaking Lucknow’s Nicholas Pooran (368) as the season's top scorer. Jos Buttler, who remained unbeaten on 41 off 23 balls, is third with 356 runs.
"We never talk about that one of us has to stay until the end," player-of-the-match Gill said. "We just talk about how we can score runs in these conditions and how to take the game deep."
Andre Russell got Kolkata their first breakthrough by dismissing Sudharsan, but was later hit for three boundaries in a row by Buttler. Gill missed out on a century after falling to Vaibhav Arora.
Buttler and Rahul Tewatia pushed Gujarat towards a strong finish, with Arora conceding 18 runs in the final over.
In the chase, Mohammed Siraj removed Rahmanullah Gurbaz in the first over. Sunil Narine and Rahane added 41 runs before Rashid Khan dismissed Narine for 17.
Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer kept the innings going briefly, but spinners Sai Kishore and Washington Sundar removed Iyer and Rahane respectively to stall Kolkata’s progress.
"When you are chasing 199, you expect a good opening start with the batters, that's where we are struggling throughout this tournament," said Rahane. "I thought 199 chaseable on this wicket, we bowled really well, we faltered with our batting."
Russell scored 21 off 15 balls with three fours and a six before being stumped off Rashid Khan’s bowling. Prasidh Krishna then took two wickets in an over to finish with 16 wickets in the season.
(With inputs from agencies)
