(Cricket news) Ruturaj Gaikwad scored a brilliant 92 but it all went in vain as defending champions Gujarat Titans beat Chennai Super Kings in the tournament opener. Gaikwad’s innings was nullified by Shubman Gill before a late flurry towards the end of the game from the Titans did the job for them. Devon Conway got bowled by Mohammed Shami early in the game and Moeen Ali had a slow start as CSK failed to get going in the powerplay but he took on Shami. Ali was eventually dismissed by Rashid Khan just before the end of the powerplay. All eyes were on Ben Stokes,as he came at No.4 for CSK but Rashid got him out very cheaply
Gaikwad batted like a dream as he put on a show, regularly hitting sixes to keep CSK in a good position. CSK raced to 90 in just 9 overs as the opener continued to deal in sixes, looking good for a hundred at one stage but the Maharashtra captain eventually fell eight runs short of a century. Stephen Fleming’s move to send Ambati Rayudu and Shivam Dube ahead of Ravindra Jadeja backfired big time. Rayudu couldn’t get going and Dube struggled as the scoring rate was drastically brought, CSK made only 43 runs off the next six overs after scoring 90 off 9. CSK at the death only managed to score 45 runs in the final five overs.
Tushar Deshpande created IPL history as he became the first ever impact substitute in IPL history when he was brought on for Rayudu. However, he made a terrible start as Wriddhiman Saha targeted Tushar as the bowler ended up conceding 29 off his first two. Deshpande was very expensive as he continued to leak runs throughout the match and ended up conceding 51 off just 20 deliveries. An unfortunate injury to Kane Williamson near the boundary innings forced Titans to strengthen their top order as they brought on Sai Sudharsan as the impact player in place of the Kiwi.
Sai Sudharsan got out cheaply when he edged a wide delivery off Rajvardhan Hangargekar to fall for 22.Gill on the other hand looked at ease from the beginning. He got to his fifty off just 30 balls and put the Titans in a very good position to win the match. He continued to bat deep and brought the equation down to 41 off 31 but unfortunately he mistimed a shot as the opener fell for 63.
A tight over from Deepak Chahar was followed by another impressive over from Hangargekar as both the bowlers put the Titans batman under pressure. But Rashid came out and smashed a six first ball and followed it up with a boundary to bring the equation down to 8 from the final over. Deshpande was given the last as Rahul Tewatia hammered a six and a four off the first two balls.
Brief scores: Chennai Super Kings 178/7 in 20 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 92; Rashid Khan 2/26, Mohammed Shami 2/29) Gujarat Titans182/5 in 19.2 overs (Shubman Gill 63; Rajvardhan Hangargekar 3/36) by 5 wickets
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