Magnificent Miller powers Gujarat to another last-gasp victory

The Gujarat Titans have pulled off another heist in the Indian Premier League as David Miller and Rashid Khan combined to score 48 runs off the last three overs to give Hardik Pandya’s side a memorable victory at the MCA Stadium in Pune. Chasing 170, the Titans looked dead and buried at 48 for four, but David Miller played an outstanding innings of 94 from 51 deliveries to take the team over the line with just one ball to spare. 

Having restricted Chennai to 169, Gujarat got off to a terrible start to their run-chase. Shubman Gill steered one to point to depart for a golden duck before mystery spinner Maheesh Theekshana removed Vijay Shankar and Abhinav Manohar inside the powerplay to reduce the Hardik Pandya-less Titans to 16 for three in four overs. The situation went from bad to worse a few overs later when the struggling Wriddhiman Saha was caught in the deep after a shaky knock off 11 from 18 deliveries to make it 48 for four in eight.

However, while most of his teammates struggled to connect bat to ball, David Miller launched a superb counter-attack for Gujarat to keep their hopes alive. After dropping anchor and scoring just 27 runs from his first 21, Miller started to slowly shift through the gears. He took on his favourable match-up – Ravindra Jadeja – and creamed two sixes and a four in the 12th over to bring up his 50 before hitting two more boundaries in a 12-run 14th over from Chris Jordan. Miller hit another couple of sixes off Bravo and Theekshana, but the West Indian bowled three superb overs for just 13 runs to leave Gujarat needing 48 off the final 18 balls.

Unfortunately for CSK, Chris Jordan wasn’t as accurate as Bravo, and the Englishman ended up conceding 38 runs from 11 balls at the death. Rashid Khan smashed three sixes and a four in a 25-run 18th over before David Miller finished the job with two boundaries in the 20th, taking the Titans to the top of the table with five wins in six.

Earlier, CSK managed to put on a par score of 169 thanks to a much-awaited knock from opener Ruturaj Gaikwad. Although CSK lost Robin Uthappa and Moeen Ali early on, Gaikwad and Ambati Rayudu shared a pivotal 92-run partnership to set up a big finish at the death. 

However, both Rayudu (46 off 31) and Gaikwad (73 off 48) departed in the middle period, which saw CSK lose their momentum and score just 11 runs between overs 15 to 17. Rashid Khan applied further pressure to Chennai by bowling an excellent penultimate over that went for just six runs, but Ravindra Jadeja spared the team’s blushes in the final six deliveries bowled by Lockie Ferguson as the all-rounder managed to clear the ropes twice to give the Super Kings a much-needed boost at the death.