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Shubman Gill's maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) ton helped the Gujarat Titans (GT) to a total of 188 runs as the other batters failed to rise to the occasion, and then their star pace duo of Mohammed Sharma (4/21) and Mohit Sharma (4/28) took 8 of the 10 wickets to defeat the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and effectively ending the visitor's IPL 2023 campaign with a win by 34 runs in Ahmedabad on Monday, May 15.
Chasing this total was always going to be a tough task for the inconsistent SRH batters, and they fell to the pressure of Shami, who has been exceptional for his team in the powerplay this season. He was ably supported by Mohit Sharma as the veteran pacers ran riot on the SRH top order.
Yash Dayal, brought into the fray after he was smashed for 30 runs in the infamous final over against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), bagged the important wicket of Abhishek Sharma, as Shami got Anmolpreet Singh, skipper Markram and Rahul Tripathi, while Mohit went on to get the wickets of Sanvir Singh, Abdul Samad and Marco Jansen.
In the end, Heinrich Klaasen and Bhuvneshwar Kumar held on but were unable to get their team all the way to the finish line. Klaasen ensured the game went to the very last ball with a hardy 64 runs in 44 balls and a partnership of 68 with Bhuvneshwar. They only managed 154 but persevered to the very end.
Earlier, Shubman Gill smashed his maiden IPL century of his career, and his seventh in the last six months.
The swashbuckling opener took just 56 balls to achieve this feat, and in doing so, was the sixth ton of the season, and the first in the short history of the Gujarat Titans in the IPL.
After being sent in to bat first by SRH, the side lost Wriddhiman Saha for a duck early, but Gill persevered with his 101 off 58 balls to help his team set a solid platform of 188 runs for the win.
Gill combined first with Sai Sudharsan to set up a partnership of 147 runs for the second wicket. Then, there was a major collapse as Sai ended up being the last batter to touch double digits in his team.
His innings included 13 fours and a six as his knock helped the Titans recover from a slow start after being put into bat first. They were 36 for 2 in the seventh over before Gill and Sudarshan put on their partnership. Gill reached his century off 56 balls, with a six off T Natarajan. He was eventually out caught by Nicholas Pooran off Umran Malik.
After Gill's dismissal, Gujarat's innings collapsed as they lost their last five wickets for 12 runs. IPL debutant Dasun Shanaka remained unbeaten on nine runs off seven balls but the tail-ender fell like a pack of cards.
The hero for SRH was Bhuvneshwar Kumar, bagging the second fifer in IPL 2023, and the second of his long IPL career. Of these, three came in the final over, restricting the team to a score below 200.
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