Hello and a warm welcome to yet another blog on the daily match reviews of this year’s IPL. In this blog, I will cover the game between the Gujarat Titans and the Chennai Super Kings at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. So let’s get started!
Ruturaj won a rare toss and opted to field first in front of a gigantic crowd engulfed in yellow mainly. However, the Titans had a new opening pair, with Sudharsan and Gill as they dropped the struggling Saha and this worked wonders as they just kept going and got some help by some pathetic CSK fielding. Both openers got their 100s, striking over 200 but once both got out, CSK clawed their way back and restricted the Titans to 231. Chasing, CSK lost 3 wickets, the main one being their captain who has been in sublime form. From here the game was almost done. Moeen and Mitchell played a very good counterattack, but Mohit Sharma came in and took both of them in quick succession and CSK comfortably lost the game by 35 runs, keeping both GT and RCB’s hopes alive.
In an embarrassing thumping for CSK in front of a massive yellow crowd, their bowling was definitely below par but similar to how PBKS performed yesterday, CSK were sloppy on the field, which cost them about 10-15 runs but credit to their death bowlers to finally use the slower ball, which maybe they would think they should have operated well before the death overs but nevertheless, the Titans who were on par to 250+ were reduced to 231, still a massive score. Rahane’s and Rachin’s woes continued but the thing which surprised everyone was that Ruturaj fell for a duck on a very important day. But the Titans would feel they should have one this game by about 60+ runs, quite similar to RCB’s win yesterday but they gave CSK some chances in the middle and even though they got the job done by a huge margin of 35 runs, crucial NRR points were being missed by them as they have the worst NRR out of all the teams. So overall a pathetic performance by the defending champions, who are not playing like a champion side and GT completely dominated the game. CSK did have some chances but in the end, the result was obvious by seeing the quality of CSK’s play today. Still, a win with RR will probably book their playoff ticket and eliminate some other teams and also they have a game at their second home indirectly, at the Chinnaswamy, so I feel they are still comfortably placed to qualify. Practically GT cannot qualify because of their NRR thumping by RCB twice but mathematically they are still in. But this game has thrown the tournament open for the 4th spot as SRH would mostly grab the 3rd playoff ticket and 5 teams compete for the 4th spot.
So that’s it for today. Tomorrow it is between MI and KKR at Eden, a result which will not impact the points table at all and the other teams and their fans can have a breather. So I will catch you on that one!