Gujarat Titans rode on fine performances from Mohammed Shami and Rahul Tewatia to defeat Lucknow Super Giants by five wickets at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday, in what was the debut game of both teams in the Indian Premier League.
Gujarat restricted Lucknow to 158/6 and chased down the target with two balls to spare.
Asked to bat first, Lucknow found themselves in all sorts of trouble due to a fiery opening spell by Shami. The right-arm pacer removed LSG captain KL Rahul with the very first ball of the match before dismissing the dangerous Quinton de Kock two overs later.
Lucknow were soon reduced to 29/4 but half-centuries by Deepak Hooda and young Ayush Badoni helped them get to a competitive total.
IPL 2022: Badoni makes waves on debut with half-century for Lucknow Super Giants
Shami returned with superb figures of 3/25 from his four overs, with Varun Aaron bagging two wickets and Gujarat vice-captain Rashid Khan picking 1/27 in his spell.
In reply, the Titans lost Shubman Gill in the first over with Vijay Shankar, who came in at No 3, managing just four runs.
Opener Matthew Wade (30 off 29) and skipper Hardik Pandya (33 off 28) then added a much-needed partnership but the duo was removed in quick succession, with Hardik being dismissed by his brother Krunal.
South Africa’s David Miller then scored a 21-ball 30 batting at No 5 to provide the Gujarat innings a push. But it came down to Tewatia (40* off 24) and Abhinav Manohar (15* off 7) to get the job done for the Titans.
Needing 11 runs to win off the last over, Abhinav hit Avesh Khan for two fours before Tewatia added another boundary to finish the game.
The left-handed Tewatia, who played a number of impressive knocks in the past for Rajasthan Royals, showed great composure in his innings and hit five fours and two sixes.
Krunal with 1/17 from four overs and Dushmantha Chameera with 2/22 from three overs were the pick of the bowlers for the Super Giants.
IPL 2022 points table after GT vs LSG
| | Team | Pld | Won | Lost | Net RR | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DC | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0.914 | 2 |
| 2 | PBKS | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0.697 | 2 |
| 3 | KKR | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0.639 | 2 |
| 4 | GT | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0.286 | 2 |
| 5 | LSG | 1 | 0 | 1 | -0.286 | 0 |
| 6 | CSK | 1 | 0 | 1 | -0.639 | 0 |
| 7 | RCB | 1 | 0 | 1 | -0.697 | 0 |
| 8 | MI | 1 | 0 | 1 | -0.914 | 0 |
| | RR | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 |
| | SRH | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 |
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