Captain Shubman Gill and B. Sai Sudharsan unleashed an outstanding assault on the bowling attack of Chennai Super Kings by slamming centuries each as they powered Gujarat Titans to a massive 231/3 in 20 overs in Match 59 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Friday.
Pushed into batting first on a placid pitch, Gill hit nine fours and six sixes at a strike rate of 189.09 to hit his fourth IPL hundred in Ahmedabad.
On the other hand, Sudarshan, opening the batting after Wriddhiman Saha was ruled out due to a niggle, slammed five fours and seven sixes at a strike rate of 201.96 to get his maiden IPL century.
Gill and Sudarshan had a 210-run opening partnership, which equals the record for the highest opening stand held by Quinton de Kock and K.L. Rahul, who added exactly 210 runs for the first wicket against Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2022.
After the duo fell, Gujarat Titans managed just one boundary in the last three overs as CSK kept them below 250, which looked like a sure-shot possibility at one point. Only Tushar Deshpande was amongst the wicket-takers for CSK with his 2-33. CSK now have to pull off the highest chase in their IPL history to bag two crucial points for making their path to entering playoffs easily.
Gill made his intentions clear from the opening over by square-driving and lofting Mitchell Santer for four and six respectively in the opening over. Sudharsan greets Shardul Thakur with a lofted six, before swiping Tushar Deshpande for another maximum. The duo then hit a couple more boundaries as they added 58 runs in the power-play.
Sudarshan overcame a slow start, but he pulled and slog-swept off Ravindra Jadeja to get his fifty in 32 balls. On the way, he also became the fastest Indian batter to get 1000 IPL runs in 25 innings, going past Sachin Tendulkar and Ruturaj Gaikwad, who reached the landmark in 31 innings.
Gill got his fifty in just 25 balls by heaving Simarjeet Singh for a six and then slammed a strong bottom-handed four straight past the pacer for four more in a 23-run 11th over, where Sudarshan also carted him for consecutive sixes.
Such was the effect of the carnage from Gill and Sudarshan that CSK had to bring in Daryl Mitchell to bowl. Much to his and CSK’s agony, Gill was dropped by long-off on 72, who parried the ball over the boundary for six in the 14th over. From there, some jaw-dropping stroke-play saw Gill get to his hundred off 50 balls with a four past square leg off Simarjeet. In the same over, Sudharsan got his century off 50 balls by pulling past long leg for six. The centuries hut by Gill and Sudarshan are also IPL’s 100th and 101st hundreds.
The scintillating show came to an end when the duo holed out in the span of five balls to Deshpande. After that, CSK kept GT quiet in the remainder of the death overs to give away just 41 runs off the last five overs.
Brief scores:
Gujarat Titans 231/3 in 20 overs (Shubman Gill 104, B. Sai Sudarshan 103; Tushar Deshpande 2-33) against Chennai Super Kings