Mohit Sharma’s back-of-the-hand slower ball took an eternity to rise after landing on the surface. Then it hung forever in the air. But Ashutosh Sharma, the impact player making an incredible impact, waited for an eternity too. Deep in the crease, as though he had read the mind of Mohit, his bat held flat like a hack-ready axe, his body already rotating to the leg-side. In the end it was a hack, a wild one at that, but Ashutosh froze his hands to not commit to the shot prematurely. And when the ball arrived he threw the proverbial kitchen sink at it. The timing was ordinary but it was so brutally hit that it sailed over the deep mid-wicket fence. It was the 34th six he had struck in just 16 games. The six off the second ball of the 19th over eased the nerves of Punjab fans; they now required 18 runs off 12 balls. Shashank whittled it down further with a six, and he wrapped up the chase in the last over with lots of guts and a slice of luck.
2️⃣ Points ✅
Young guns Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma win it for @PunjabKingsIPL 🙌
They get over the line as they beat #GT by 3 wickets 👍
When was the last time Rashid Khan was hit for three successive sixes? Two late bloomers, 32-year-old Shashank Singh and 30-year-old Jitesh Sharma accomplished this. The silken Singh slog-swept him, as elegant a slog-sweep could be, in the last ball of his third over. In the first ball of his fourth over, Sharma, still new at the crease, bludgeoned his slider over long off’s head, a stroke of pure power. An enraged Khan whipped in a wrong’un which Sharma was anticipating, and heaved heinously over mid-wicket. Not endowed with a muscular frame, Sharma generates incredible power with his bat-swing and transfer of weight. It could have been a fourth on the spin, but Jitesh mistimed a full toss, of all his variations, to the hands of deep midwicket. Khan could barely believe his luck as he celebrated his 50th wicket for Gujarat Titans. Khan has had an erratic start to the tournament, CSK thrashed him for 49 runs the other night, but Titans would believe that he strikes his lethal best better late than never.
Shubman Gill’s strokeplay has always been his biggest strength. There is an air of elegance to the shots he plays, the touch of a batter who understands his strengths well and is also blissfully self-aware of how classical he can be. Which is why the shot he played against Kagiso Rabada on Thursday in Ahmedabad would have pleased him so much. First, context. Rabada is one of the best bowlers in the world, and in this IPL, he has been used as a wicket-taking option at various parts of the innings, not necessarily in a set template. So when he comes on to bowl, Punjab are usually banking on a breakthrough, meaning Gill could have possibly played him out. Next, the brilliance. It was a perfectly good delivery from Rabada, on a pitch that was two-paced, where hitting through the length could be risky. But Gill shuffled across, planted his front foot forward and hit through the line, with wonderfully high elbows. Of course, he held the pose too for good measure as the ball went for six. A shot of the tournament contender.
Kane Williamson was unusually aghast, at himself more than the world. The moment when his mistimed cut shot off Harpreet Brar ended in the palms of Jonny Bairstow—beaten by the extra bounce of the left-arm spinner—the New Zealand talisman with a poet’s beard and coroner’s coolness cursed himself. He regained his nature in a split-second, but you could sense he was horribly gutted with the way he got after strolling to 26. There was a resolve about his game—he would glide out of his crease often, and once square-drove Kagiso Rabada through cover point for his first four. Later, he punched Sam Curran through covers, a shot of authority rather than elegance. The ball before he got out, he sashayed down the track and drove his inside out over cover, a prelude to how he would bat in the Test series later this year. He was penning a miniature poem on T20 batting. An ode to T20 batting by a classicist, before Brar cut short the joy of Williamson as well as those that were watching him. The cut is one of his favorite strokes, but he didn’t account for the bounce from the six feet two inches left-arm spinner.
Shikhar smiles, at last
Shikhar Dhawan finally smiled. He got under a skier from the leading edge of Wriddhiman Saha. He raised his right leg and beat his thighs, once a familiar celebration routine in international career. He then broke into a hearty smile and a peel of giggles. Until that moment, he just kept staring hollowly at his erring bowlers and fielders, who were gifting Gujarat Titans reckless runs. Not to forget the crushing pressure he is under, his team having lost two of their last three games. Enough for even the usually pleasant Dhawan to lose his composure. He threw a stink eye at Arshdeep Singh, who served Wriddhiman Saha a delicious leg-side half-volley that he duly dispelled to the fence, in the next over, Kagiso Rabada would err in similar vein, with the fine-up inside the circle, and Shubman Gill delightfully glided him to the boundary cushion. He would furiously signal both to shift the line to the off-stump and then look skywards in despair. Add to that a lbw of Saha that was overturned, his wicket-keeper Jitesh Sharma tripping and falling down when chasing a ball that eventually cost a boundary. It was one of those stick days when nothing seemed to work, from the toss to the faltering bowlers. Finally, he got a kiss of life.
Punjab defeated Gujarat by 3 wickets. (PTI)
