Bengaluru, Apr 24 (PTI) B Sai Sudharsan produced a magnificent 100 that was an anti-thesis of T20 batting, but still strong enough to carry Gujarat Titans to a competitive 205 for three against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their IPL match here on Friday.
In fact, the 12.4 overs of the Titans’ innings was an anti-thesis of T20 batting, where the former champions proved that runs can be made in this format without hitting the ball in anger.
Sudharsan’s 58-ball knock, his third hundred in the IPL, was the cornerstone in GT’s trend-defying effort with the bat.
The left-hander totally dominated the 128-run alliance with his opening partner and captain Shubman Gill (32, 24b) from the outset, as Sudharsan consumed 29 balls in the Power Play segment against the latter’s seven.
The 24-year-old Tamil Nadu batter, who also became the fastest to score 2000 IPL runs along his innings, made 46 runs in Power Play, and then reached fifty off 33 balls in style, clobbering Romario Shepherd for a six.
The next fifty runs came at a faster clip — 24 balls — and it was a phase where he nullified RCB’s spin duo Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma.
Krunal tried his trademark bouncer to keep Sudharsan quiet, but the batter was equal to the task, upper cutting it over backward point for a six.
He followed that up with a boundary and a swept six off the same bowler as RCB skipper Rajat Patidar had to check for different options.
Gill’s dismissal did not alter the course of the match much, as Sudharsan, who was dropped on 91 by Suyash off his bowling, bled the RCB bowling silently.
Sudharsan got to his hundred with a single off Suyah but could not build on it further, giving a rather tame return catch to Josh Hazlewood.
He fell at an individual score of 100, precisely the total they made against Mumbai Indians in a 99-run mauling a few days back.
But his departure, though, helped RCB pull back a bit in the death overs.
In the overs between 17 — GT were 174 for two at that stage — and 20, the Titans could garner only 31 runs and there were not many boundary hits too, even that materialised because team’s debutant Jason Holder’s cameo (23 not out, 10b) But on another slightly tacky surface, RCB will have to bat really well to scale this down. PTI UNG APS APS
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