The defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) bulldozed former champions Rajasthan Royals (RR) by nine wickets in their Indian Premier League (IPL) clash at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium as they extended their lead at the summit of the points table.
Gujarat's dazzling duo of Rashid Khan, and Hardik Pandya ensured RR's facile victory. The decision to bat first backfired for Sanju Samson's brigade as RR's batting line-up saw a monumental collapse which could only post a total of 118 on the board. It was Rashid, who broke the back of Rajasthan's batters with a splendid spell of 3/14. In reply, it was a cake walk for the Gujarat who rode on Hardik's blistering 15-ball 39 to chase down the lowly target with 37 balls to spare. Wriddhiman Saha remained the top scorer for GT with a sedate 41 off 34. For the Royals, Yuzvendra Chahal was the only one who took a wicket.
After Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha provided a good start to the chase, Hardik smoked Adam Zampa for three sixes and a four as the visitors sealed a win under 13.5 overs. Chasing the paltry 118-run target, the opening duo Gill and Saha started off well, hitting ten boundaries in the first six overs as GT reached 49 for no loss in the PowerPlay. With just two boundaries coming in the next three overs, Shubman Gill got stumped in the 10th over off the bowling of Yuzvendra Chahal. Gill attempted a big slog but the ball turned away sharply after hitting the deck. Sanju Samson made no mistake and was quick to take the bails off.
Then, Hardik Pandya took Adam Zampa to the cleaners as he hit 6,4,6,6, taking 24 runs off an over and Titans reached 96/1 in eleven overs. Saha and Hardik collected 18 runs off the next two overs including two boundaries. With five needed to win, the duo dealt in singles and chased down the target with ease.
Earlier, RR surrendered against the GT duo of Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad to be bundled out for 118, as the two Afghan spinners shared five wickets among themselves to script Rajasthan's collapse.
RR' decision to bat after winning the toss backfired as their batting crumbled against Rashid, who returned 4-0-14-3 to spark a collapse, and Noor, who registered 3-0-25-2.
Rajasthan looked in control until the fifth over of the innings at 47/1, but the home side collapsed without any resistance to lose nine wickets for a mere 71 runs and was bowled out in 17.5 overs, at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.
Hardik Pandya had Jos Buttler (8) caught by Mohit Sharma at short third man after the batter cracked two fours in a row in the second over.
The pair of Sanju Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal (14) tried providing RR with momentum, but their 36-run second-wicket stand was broken in the final over of the powerplay with Abhinav Manohar putting in a dive to stop a cut from Samson. Mohit Sharma threw the ball to Rashid, who broke the stumps with Jaiswal far out from the crease.
The Rashid-led bowling attack then took firm control of the proceedings. Little ended Samson's promising start at 30 off 20 balls (3x4s, 1x6s), getting the RR captain caught inside the ring off a mistimed stroke.
Samson moved across the line to play on the on side but could only get a leading edge, collected by Pandya as the RR skipper looked at the surface in disbelief. Rashid then outgunned his counterpart Ravichandran Ashwin (2) for the majority of the eighth over, dismantling his off-stump on the final ball.
Riyan Parag (4) continued to disappoint as he failed to read the Afghan leggie's googly in the 10th over and appealed unsuccessfully against the umpire's leg-before call.
At the halfway mark, RR were stuttering at 72 for five.
Noor Ahmed got into the act to keep RR under the pump, castling the left-handed Devdutt Padikkal (12) in the 12th over and trapping the dangerous Dhruv Jurel (9) leg-before in his next.
Rashid returned in the 15th over to dismiss Shimron Hetmyer (7) leg-before, with the Caribbean batter's horrendous run continuing in this IPL.
With scores of 3, 2, 8, 8 and 7, Hetmyer has now recorded five single-digit scores on the trot. Rashid nearly had his fourth wicket in his final over but a return shot off Trent Boult's bat was a bit too far away for his reach in the follow-through.
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