Gujarat Titans defeated Chennai Super Kings by 4 wickets in a last over thriller. Batting first, CSK put 178 runs on board, at one stage it looked that they can go over 190 with Ruturaj Gaikwad all set to score a big ton in the first match of IPL 2023 but they lost their momentum in last 5 overs.
From get go, Gujarat Titans were looking to hunt down the total with ease which they did despite losing a few wickets in the second half of their innings. Shubhman Gill was brilliant with the bat, scoring 36 balls 63 which kept GT ahead in the game for a long period of time.
Despite the first victory of the season, a loss has been added to GT’s squad. Kane Williamson will not play any of the match as he has been ruled out of the IPL 2023 due to knee injury.
Thankfully, because of impact player rule, Gujarat Titans were able to make like for like replacement with Sai Sudarshan who played a moving knock when team was 1 down in the fourth over.
“We were very happy because at one point they were looking to go past 200, but we got wickets at the right time, obviously when we lost Kane, we had to make sure we cover those runs and as many less runs as we can give,” Gujarat Titans captain Hardik Pandya said.
Kane Williamson is a world class player, someone who understands the game and knows how to run it through. Losing him will be a great cost to pay for Gujarat Titans who needed someone to maneuver the innings in the middle overs.
Luckily, in the first match, everything went well and the job was easily done. Rashid Khan was once again outstanding with the ball, then when he came to bat, fired 10 runs in two balls to completely snatch away the game from Chennai Super Kings.