GT vs CSK: Gill, Sudharsan star as Gujarat keep faint playoff hopes alive

Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan’s brilliant knocks helped GT maintain their playoff hopes and upset CSK in Ahmedabad by 35 runs on Friday, May 10.

Gujarat was able to get revenge for their loss in the IPL 2023 final last year and it was Gill and Sudharsan who stitched together a 210-run stand for the first wicket after being asked to bat.

Gill and Sudharsan were aggressive from the get-go and both men scored their 100s off exactly 50 balls, with Sudharsan also becoming the fastest Indian to 1000 IPL runs. CSK would pull things back in the last few overs to restrict GT to just 231 runs in 20 overs with some impressive death bowling. The CSK chase got the worst possible start as Rachin Ravindra was run-out and the very next ball, Ajinkya Rahane also departed. The in-form Ruturaj Gaikwad would go for a duck as CSK lost 3 wickets for just 10 runs.

Daryl Mitchell and Moeen Ali would have a partnership of 109 runs with the New Zealand batter scoring 63 off 34 balls. However, the wickets of both men seemed to have signalled the end of the CSK chase. Shivam Dube’s rough patch continued as he was targeted with slower balls.

Mohit Sharma was the star with the ball as he had figures of 3 for 31 in his 4 overs,

Wickets would tumble before Dhoni produced a couple of lusty blows in the end to send the crowd back home happy. Ultimately, the task proved to be too much for the great man himself as CSK now need to recover quickly for their clash with RR.

Shubman Gill finally stands up for GT
Gill had sort of gone missing for GT this season as his performances didn’t live up to the big expectations of him from fans. With close to 900 runs last season and 3 hundred in what was a record-breaking campaign, the young star had all eyes on him as he took up the captaincy as well. However, his season didn’t go according to plan.

Gill had scored 322 runs in 11 matches with an average of 32.30 and a strike-rate of 137.61. He only had two fifties to his name as GT struggled in the IPL 2024 campaign under Gill’s captaincy. This would lead to him being put in the reserves for the T20 World Cup. GT needed their skipper to come up with a special performance on Friday, and he delivered it at his favourite ground.

The intent was clear from the very first over as Gill took on Mitchell Santner and hit him for a six and boundary. While Sai Sudharsan started to be the aggressor in the partnership, Gill ensured he wasn’t left behind and got to his fifty in 25 balls and after another 25, got to his 4th IPL hundred.

This is good news for GT as they keep their playoff hopes alive. For the Indian team, an in-form Gill is a great option to call into the squad in case of an injury.

CSK continues to struggle without pace aces
While the bowling was right on the money in Dharamsala, the CSK bowlers, apart from Shardul Thakur, just looked clueless on the day. Gill and Sudharsan took the attack to them and they had no answers to the onslaught as the duo got 210 runs for the first wicket.

Chennai surely missed their pace trio of Deepak Chahar, Mustafizur Rahman and Matheesha Pathirana. The trio has a total of 32 wickets between them. More than Chahar, the duo of Mustafizur and Pathirana and their variations were missing from the CSK armoury on the day.

Jadeja and Santner conceded 60 runs combined from 4 overs and Simarjeet Singh would also concede the same amount. Daryl Mitchell’s medium pace had no effect in the end and this is an area CSK need to solve this moving forward.

Maybe it could be a time to use Shivam Dube the bowler more or look to the bench for a solution. CSK next face RR on 12th May in Chennai, which will be their final home game.