Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill admitted it was a poor batting performance from them after they lost by 33 against Lucknow Super Giants at the Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow on Sunday. While chasing 164, the visitors were skittled out for 130 runs.
GT got off to a decent start as their openers – Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan – added 54 runs in the Powerplay overs. But the tourists kept losing wickets at regular intervals and could not get going in the middle overs.
Sai Sudharsan top-scored 31 whereas Rahul Tewatia scored 30 but the other batters failed to find any momentum in their innings. After Mayank Yadav walked off due to side strain, Yash Thakur stepped up for Lucknow.
The right-arm pacer returned with impressive figures of 5-30, registering his maiden five-wicket haul in the IPL. Thakur made the most of the slower balls and bamboozled the GT’s batters.
Shubman Gill said in the post-match presentation, “It was a good wicket to bat on, a poor batting performance by us. We got a decent start, but we lost wickets in the middle and couldn’t recover from that. Our bowlers were exceptional as they restricted them to 160-odd, just that our batters let us down.”
On missing the services of David Miller, Gill added, “Miller is a kind of a player who can change a game in a couple of overs, because I think this total was very gettable for us.”
Gill was cleaned up by Yash Thakur with an incoming delivery on the last ball of the Powerplay overs. On his dismissal, Gill said, “I thought it was the last over of the powerplay and I just wanted to make the most of it, just that I missed that ball as I tried to play a bit too square. It was tremendous to watch our bowlers bowl, we were looking forward to restricting them around 160-165.”
Gujarat Titans will next take on in-form Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium, Jaipur on Wednesday.
