All-round Gujarat flatten Rajasthan to extend lead at the top

The Gujarat Titans steamrolled the Rajasthan Royals with a clinical nine-wicket victory in Jaipur on Friday night to solidify their spot at the top of the points table in IPL 2023. Led by the wizardry of their two Afghan leg-spinners, the Titans skittled Rajasthan for a mere 118 in 17.5 overs before sailing home in the chase with 37 balls to spare, extending their lead at the top of the table to three points.

Opting to bat first, the Rajasthan Royals got off to a promising start to their powerplay despite losing Jos Buttler in the second over. The Englishman fashioned a couple of early boundaries against Hardik Pandya but ended up slashing the all-rounder to short third, handing the Titans an early break.

Jaiswal and Samson, though, continued their attacking template against the new ball. The in-form left-hander carved Shami for a four and a six in his second over, while Samson raced away to 23 off his first 13 deliveries. However, from 47 for 1 in five overs, the Rajasthan innings capitulated after a mix-up between the two batters, leading to Jaiswal’s untimely run-out.

Jaiswal’s departure kickstarted a middle-order collapse for Rajasthan as Little induced a leading edge from Samson on 30 before the Afghan duo of Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad spun a web around the Royals middle-order. Khan castled the promoted Ravichandran Ashwin in his second over and bamboozled Riyan Parag with a googly for 4, while Noor Ahmad dismissed Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel in successive overs, leaving the Royals reeling at 87 for 7.

Khan also returned to extend Shimron Hetmyer’s poor run of form in this IPL, trapping the West Indian on his pads to end any hopes of a Rajasthan recovery. Hetmyer’s wicket reduced the Royals to 96 for 8, and the hosts were eventually bundled out for 117 inside 18 overs.

Hoping to complete the chase in a hurry to boost their net run rate, the Gujarat openers came out with a positive approach. Wriddhiman Saha laced a couple of boundaries off Trent Boult in the opening over, while Gill kept the runs flowing against Sandeep Sharma.

The duo added 49 runs in the powerplay and shared a 71-run stand before Chahal deceived Shubman Gill through the air and had the opener stumped on 36. Coming in at number three, Hardik Pandya wasted no time in seeing the game off, launching Adam Zampa for three sixes and a four and racing away to a quickfire 15-ball 39 to complete the chase in 13.5 overs.