Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
After winning the toss on a rare occasion in the IPL 2024, Ruturaj Gaikwad, the Chennai Super Kings captain, decided to field first. Although his decision didn’t prove to be right with the Gujarat Titans captain, Shubman Gill, and his opening partner Sai Sudharsan taking full toll of the opposition bowling attack.
After completing their hundreds, Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan also equalled the record of the highest opening stand in IPL history with 210 runs, joining KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock on top of the illustrious list. It allowed Gujarat Titans to post a massive total of 231/3 in their allotted overs despite the fact that Chennai Super Kings conceded only 41 runs in the last five overs.
In pursuit of the 232-run target, Chennai Super Kings had a horror start, losing both their openers Rachin Ravindra and Ajinkya Rahane for one each, inside the first two overs of the innings. The captain Ruturaj Gaikwad, who had demoted himself to number three in the batting order, lost his wicket without troubling the scorers, trying to hit Umesh Yadav for a maximum, only to find Rashid Khan at the square leg boundary, who completed a smart catch.
But Chennai Super Kings made a comeback into the match, through a 109-run stand between Daryl Mitchell and Moeen Ali for the fourth wicket. It was Mohit Sharma, who took the key wicket of Daryl Mitchell, getting him caught at the long-off region courtesy Shahrukh Khan on a slower ball after he had scored 63 off 34 with seven fours and three maximums.
The wickets kept falling for the Chennai Super Kings with Moeen Ali departing having scored 56 runs, followed by wickets of Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja and Mitchell Santner. However, with MS Dhoni taking the crease in the 17th over, he helped his side adding 26 runs on the board but eventually fell short by 35 runs in the chase. With this win, the Titans continued their hopes of IPL 2024 playoffs alive.
