NEW DELHI: Defending champions Gujarat Titans came back to winning ways on Friday, demolishing Rajasthan Royals by nine wickets in their Indian Premier League match at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.
Titans consolidated their top spot in the standings with the win as they now have 14 points from 10 games, three more than the second-placed Lucknow Super Giants. The Royals remained fourth with five wins and as many defeats in 10 games.
Visitors Gujarat made short work of the small 119 run chase, galloping home in just 13.5 overs with nine wickets in hand.
Openers Wriddhiman Saha (41 not out off 34 balls) and Shubman Gill (36 off 35) made sure that there were no hiccups in the chase, adding a solid 71 runs in 9.4 overs. After Gill’s departure, skipper Hardik Pandya came in as No.3 bat and took no time to get going. Hardik scored an unbeaten 39 off just 15 balls, smoking three sixes and three fours in his short stay.
Both Saha and Gill got off the blocks quickly against RR pacer Trent Boult, hitting the left-armer for a couple of fours each inside the powerplay, at the end of which GT were 49 for no loss.
Yuzvendra Chahal got Gill stumped in the 10th over but the breakthrough had no impact on the Titans’ juggernaut.
Pandya was severe on RR’s Adam Zampa, hitting the Australian leg-spinner for three sixes and a four to collect 24 runs in the 11th over and hasten the process.
Earlier in the first half, Royals surrendered against the Titans’ duo of Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad to be bundled out for a poor total, as the two Afghan spinners shared five wickets.
Royals’ 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 for one, 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 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 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.