Gill and Tewatia show their class as Titans return to winning ways
Kings struggled with the bat and leaked too many runs too early with the ball in a modest chase
Kings struggled with the bat and leaked too many runs too early with the ball in a modest chase
Scorer: M Venkat Raghav | Commentator: Abhimanyu Bose
11.45pm Gujarat Titans have joined Rajasthan Royals and Lucknow Super Giants at six points from four games with the win today. Gujarat Titans again showed that they can ace a chase. From Sunday onwards, we have had last-ball thrillers every day. Today, it went to the penultimate delivery. Join us tomorrow for when Kolkata Knight Riders take on Sunrisers Hyderabad. For now, on behalf of Ashish Pant, Venkat Raghav and everyone else at ESPNcricinfo, this is me, Abhimanyu, signing off. Goodnight, and get rested before the next thriller!
11.35pm Time for the presentation ceremony
Mohit Sharma is the POTM: "I didn't think much but I have played at Mohali for three years. I thought that it could play on the slower side. I thought I could use some variations. I was fortunate that Hardik was there so I could discuss with him whenever I wanted to try something. You just have to go back and do the same thing. You go to train and keep giving your best. [On bowling in middle overs] I was prepared from before about my role. I knew that I would most probably have to bowl after the tenth over. Credit goes to the coach and the environment created here that everyone's role is very clear."
Gujarat Titans captain, Hardik Pandya: "To be very honest, i would not appreciate the game to go this close from the situation we were in. There was definitely a lot for us to learn from this game. That's the beauty of sports, it's never over till it's over. So we will go back to the drawing board. I think we can take a couple more risks in the middle overs. The wicket was good but because of the hardness of the soil and wicket, the ball was getting dried up. It was a belter when the new ball was playing. I was not surprised, when Mohit and Alzarri came. They bowled terrific. And credit to Mohit. To come join us as a net bowler and then wait for his chance, knowing his time will come and today it came. It will be a tough pill to swallow, taking it this close. Not a big fan of taking the game to the last over."
11.23pmGujarat Titans were seemingly cruising for a large part of the chase. With seven needed off the last over, it looked like a simple conclusion, largely thanks to Shubman Gill's composed 67. But Sam Curran had other ideas. However, in the end, it was "the iceman" Rahul Tewatia who got the job done.
Shubman Gill: "The wicket got tougher towards the end. It was difficult to score boundaries at will. It was important for us to run hard and get those boundaries. I feel I should have finished the match but I feel Rahul Tewatia and Kings XI is a love-story. In these types of games there is definitely pressure on both teams. But it's important to keep getting those singles and not have dot balls. Just after their innings got over, we knew that it would be easier to score runs with the hard ball. It got slower with the old ball. So we needed to get off to a good start in the powerplay. We lost a bit of momentum when Hardik bhai got out. It wasn't a big score but it was important to rotate the strike and not have dot balls. It's amazing. He [Mohit Sharma] was looking good in the nets, especially with the old ball. He has got a good yorker and he is very accurate. I think it was a great Gujarat Titans debut for him."
PBKS skipper, Shikhar Dhawan: Yeah I agree that we did not quite put as many runs on the board. If you see the number of dot balls, whenever they play 56 dot balls, they end up losing the game. So we need to rectify that. Whenever a team lose early wickets, they go on the back foot but we need to work on that. Our batting unit needed to give more of a cushion to the bowling unit. He came for practice yesterday but he pulled his muscle so he may be fit in another 3-4 days."
Curran begins his run-up and stalls
andye: "what a stop by Rishi Dhawan"
Here is Rahul Tewatia, who hit two last-over sixes in an encounter between these two teams last year to win it for the Titans
Shubman Gill b Curran 67 (49b 7x4 1x6) SR: 136.73
Seven runs needed off the last over. Sam Curran with a huge job to play
Mohit Sharma had kept at it, behind the scenes, and made sure he was ready for his moment when it came, ready to make it his
Kings struggled with the bat and leaked too many runs too early with the ball in a modest chase
Hardik Pandya is expected to be available for Titans, while Kings will be tempted to field both Rabada and Livingstone