Ahmedabad: Young Sai Sudharsan and experienced David Miller joined forces for a crucial 64-run stand and propelled Gujarat Titans to a seven-wicket win against Sunrisers Hyderabad and registered their second win of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Sunday.
While Sudarshan overcame a slow start on a two-paced pitch to make 45 off 36 balls, David Miller fought through pain in his leg to be unbeaten on 44 off 27 deliveries. The duo never panicked even when it looked like SRH had the slight upper hand in the middle overs to take GT over the line in the last over of the chase.
Chasing 163, Wriddhiman Saha was off to a flying start by hitting two sixes and a four in the first four overs, covering up well for Shubman Gill’s slow start. But Shahbaz Ahmed took out Saha on the first ball of the fifth over, when the batter chipped to mid-on.
Gill went from 11 runs in 12 balls to hitting a six and four each off Ahmed and Washington Sundar respectively to reach 36 off 27 deliveries. But on the first ball post the timeout, Gill danced down the pitch to loft a googly from Mayank Markande but holed out to long-on to fall for 36 off 28 balls.
GT’s struggle to accelerate in the middle overs cropped up again when Impact Player Sudharsan and Miller struggled to get a move on, with SRH bowlers mixing up deliveries as well as variation in pace to keep the duo in check.
Sudharsan broke the shackles by driving Jaydev Unadkat for four, guiding Pat Cummins by opening the bat face late to get a boundary wide of the diving short-third man. He then pulled Washington Sundar for another four to inject some life into GT’s chase.
Miller, who was at 13 off 16 balls before the 16th over began, got past his slow start by splitting the gap between long-on and deep mid-wicket to perfection for four, before dancing down the pitch to carve Markande over extra cover for six. Sudarshan then danced down the pitch to dispatch Markande for six, before Miller ended the decisive 24-run over by lofting downtown for another maximum.
Pat Cummins presented a twist in the game as Sudarshan pulled his slower delivery to mid-wicket, but Miller ensured the game firmly stayed in GT’s grasp by hitting two fours off Cummins –- a pull through long leg was followed by slapping one past a misfielding extra cover. Vijay Shankar applied finishing touches with back-to-back boundaries -– a top-edge on pull followed by a punch over mid-off, before Miller finished off the chase by lofting a six over long-off to give GT a clinical win with five balls to spare.
Brief Scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 162/8 in 20 overs (Abdul Samad 29, Abhishek Sharma 29; Mohit Sharma 3-25, Azmatullah Omarzai 1-24) lost to Gujarat Titans 168/3 in 19.1 overs (Sai Sudharsan 45, David Miller 44 not out; Shahbaz Ahmed 1-20, Pat Cummins 1-28) by seven wickets
–IANS