“One Pandya will win,” said Gujarat Titans captain Hardik Pandya ahead of the toss. He was facing his brother Krunal Pandya who is standing-in as captain for Lucknow Super Giants in the absence of KL Rahul. And it was the Jr. Pandya that prevailed as GT defeated LSG by 56 runs in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
The duo became the first brothers to captain two opposing sides in an Indian Premier League match.
GT piled up 227 for two — the fourth highest total this season — against LSG, driven by Shubman Gill’s unbeaten 94 and Wriddhiman Saha’s devastating 81 at the top.
Saha and Gill went hammer and tongs from the start, adding 142 runs for the first wicket in only 12.1 overs, breaking the franchise record for highest partnership for any wicket.
Saha smashed four sixes and ten fours in his 81-ball innings, while Gill opened up a little late but finished close to what would have been a magnificent first IPL century, smashing seven sixes and two fours in his 51-ball effort.
Hardik Pandya, like the previous innings, was hitting them cleanly to finish with a 15-ball 25. He added 42 runs for the second wicket with Gill from 23 balls.
Lucknow Super Giants, fielding a new opening duo in Kyle Mayers and Quinton de Kock were up to the chase as they stitched a 88-run opening partnership. The left-handed Mayers began the chase strongly as he hit Hardik for a hat-trick of boundaries and then took on Mohammed Shami in a 19-run over.
Mohit Sharma sent back Mayers to break an 88-run opening stand and later took down dangerous Australian batsman Marcus Stoinis to dent the chase.
De Kock reached his fifty in his first IPL appearance this season but was bowled by Afghanistan spin wizard Rashid Khan as the Lucknow chase fell off track.
Krunal was out for a first-ball duck off Mohit, However, on a pitch that had already shown signs of slowing down late in GT’s batting innings, the chase never really looked on after the first half of the innings.
Mohit Sharma had yet another solid outing as he picked up 4/29.
Defending champions Gujarat Titans move to 16 points on the table and continue to look strong favourites to go all the way this season.
Points table after Match 51
| TEAM | P | W | L | NR | NRR | FOR | AGAINST | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GT | 11 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 0.951 | 1873/209.0 | 1757/219.2 | 16 |
| CSK | 11 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 0.409 | 1835/194.3 | 1799/199.2 | 13 |
| LSG | 11 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0.294 | 1715/196.0 | 1687/199.3 | 11 |
| RR | 10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0.448 | 1806/199.2 | 1665/193.2 | 10 |
| RCB | 10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | -0.209 | 1748/196.2 | 1792/196.4 | 10 |
| MI | 10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | -0.454 | 1801/196.0 | 1853/192.1 | 10 |
| PBKS | 10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | -0.472 | 1787/195.3 | 1844/191.5 | 10 |
| KKR | 10 | 4 | 6 | 0 | -0.103 | 1810/196.0 | 1782/190.5 | 8 |
| DC | 10 | 4 | 6 | 0 | -0.529 | 1547/196.0 | 1669/198.1 | 8 |
| SRH | 9 | 3 | 6 | 0 | -0.540 | 1437/177.1 | 1511/174.4 | 6 |
With inputs from AFP
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