Gill guides defending champion Gujarat to 6-wicket win over Punjab

MOHALI: Shubman Gill’s 67 (49b, 7x4, 1x6) helped defending champion Gujarat Titans prevail over Punjab Kings by six wickets in the IPL here on Thursday. This was Gujarat’s third win in four games, while host Punjab suffered a second successive loss and has two wins and two losses in four games.

Set to chase 154, Gujarat seemed well on course to achieving a facile win with Gill once again looking in good touch. But the host’s spinner stemmed the flow of runs in the climactic stages to increase the pressure on Gujarat batters. Towards the end, with four needing off two balls, Rahul Tewatia struck a four off Sam Curran to steer his side to win.

Earlier, medium pacer Mohit Sharma marked his return to the IPL with excellent figures of 2/18 as Gujarat restricted Punjab to 153 for eight.

Playing in his first game in the league since 2020, Mohit was exceptional in the penultimate over, giving away as little as six runs.

Matthew Short top-scored with a 24-ball 36, but it was M Shahrukh Khan’s nine-ball 22 that helped Punjab cross 150.

Sent in to bat after the coin landed in favour of the returning Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya, Punjab lost Prabhsimran Singh in the second ball of the over when his attempted flick off a length ball from Mohammed Shami went straight to Rashid Khan at short midwicket.

Prabhsimran departed without scoring.

Short walked in at number three and he got off the mark with a boundary, striking the ball through point. The next ball was short, and Short pulled the seasoned India seamer through the square leg region for another four.

Sharing the new ball with Shami, Joshua Little was welcomed with two boundaries by the in-form Shikhar Dhawan. While the first one was lofted over cover, Dhawan produced a delightful shot in the next ball, caressing the ball past mid-off in what was a high-class cover drive.

Australia’s Short, who has done well for Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League back home, took on Shami and hit him for back-to-back fours including an authoritative boundary through mid-off.

However, just when Punjab seemed to be putting Gujarat under pressure Little gave his team a huge breakthrough, dismissing the dangerous Dhawan (8) who came down the track to play the lofted shot, only to end up giving a catch to Alzarri Joseph.

Defending champion Gujarat Titans got another big wicket when the ever-reliable Rashid (1/26 in 4 overs) foxed a well-settled Short with a googly with Punjab’s score reading 55 for three in the seventh over.

Having struck a flurry of fours and a huge six off Joseph, Short had settled down nicely but looked clueless when Rashid decided to bowl the wrong’un.

Short’s dismissal set Punjab a bit, and it became trickier when Jitesh Sharma (25 off 23 balls) was sent back by Mohit, thanks to a smart piece of work by Wriddhiman Saha behind the wickets.

Sam Curran (22) struck a much-needed six -- a big maximum over deep midwicket after star leg-spinner Rashid missed his length.

Brief scores: Punjab Kings 153/8 in 20 overs lost to Gujarat Titans 154/4 in 19.5 overs (S Gill 67)