Gujarat Titans 190 for 4 (Gill 96, Sai Sudharsan 35, Rabada 2-35) beat Punjab Kings 189 for 9 (Livingstone 64, Dhawan 35, Rashid 3-22) by six wickets
Shubman Gill played yet another sublime innings, scoring a career-best 96 off 59 balls, but it was Rahul Tewatia's two sixes off the final two balls that took Gujarat Titans over the line against Punjab Kings at the Brabourne Stadium.
Chasing 190, Titans needed 62 from the last six overs with nine wickets in hand. But that one big over that would have titled the game in Titans' favour didn't come until the very end.
With 19 required from the final over, Odean Smith started with a wide to David Miller but on the next ball, Hardik Pandya got run out while trying to sneak in a bye. Rahul Tewatia took a single first ball to hand back the strike to Miller, who then pulled Smith over midwicket for four.
Then with 12 needed, Tewatia smashed the last two balls over deep midwicket to steal the victory. The boundary-rider got his hands on the first one but couldn't parry it inside. The next was a six the moment it hit the bat, leading to frenzied celebrations from Tewatia.
The Shubman Gill show
In Titans' last game, against Delhi Capitals, Gill had scored a sublime 84 off 46 balls. On Friday, it looked like he was just continuing from there. He hit the first two balls he faced, from Vaibhav Arora, for fours. Then he got stuck into Arshdeep Singh. Punching him past mid-on, pulling him through midwicket and cutting him in front of cover, he collected three boundaries in his first over.
Mayank Agarwal turned to Kagiso Rabada in the fourth over and Rabada didn't disappoint. With his second ball, he got Matthew Wade to nick one to the wicketkeeper.
B Sai Sudharsan, though, proved to be an able ally for Gill. The duo took Titans past 50 in the sixth over, and hit a six each in the next two. Gill brought up his fifty off 29 balls, steering Titans to 94 for 1 at the halfway stage. In the next three overs, he hit three more fours and reached 80 off 45 balls.
Where is the final push?
Gill and Sai Sudharsan added 101 in 68 balls for the second wicket before Sudharsan skied a Rahul Chahar googly to extra-cover.
The required rate was still not out of hand, but Arshdeep conceded only six from the 16th over and five from the 18th to make things difficult for Titans.
Pandya hit two successive fours off Rabada in the 19th over but the bowler had Gill mistiming a wide full toss to extra-cover. Off his last 16 balls, Gill managed only 18. However, Tewatia magic saved the day for Titans.
Kings' sedate start
Earlier, after being put in, Agarwal got Kings off the mark with a four off Mohammed Shami before Pandya, once again sharing the new ball, got him with a short ball.
Jonny Bairstow, who replaced Bhanuka Rajapaksa in the side, started with a first-ball four but he too didn't last long. Trying to ramp a Lockie Ferguson bouncer, he was cramped and ended up offering a dolly to short third man.
And even though each of the first overs featured at least one boundary, Kings could manage only 43 in the powerplay, their lowest in that phase so far this season.
Livingstone tees off
Liam Livingstone knows only one way to bat, or so it seems. He too opened his account with a four, and shortly afterwards jumped out of his crease to deposit Darshan Nalkande over long-on.
But then came a slice of luck. In the ninth over of the innings, Livingstone pulled Rashid Khan towards deep midwicket, where Pandya leapt in the air and took the catch. But as he was landing, his foot brushed the boundary cushion. Livingstone had started walking back and was almost near the boundary line when he saw the replay on the big screen.
In the next over, he moved across his stumps and helped Nalkande for a six and four off successive balls. He wrapped up the over with yet another four, taking Kings to 86 for 2 after ten overs.
200? 170? No, 189
All this while Shikhar Dhawan had played an innings of two halves. He raced away to 19 off 11 balls but could score only 16 off the next 19. In the end, Rashid had him caught behind with a googly. It was the fourth time he dismissed Dhawan in T20s while conceding only 41 runs off 44 balls.
Livingstone and Jitesh Sharma took the attack to Tewatia and clubbed him for 24 in his first and the only over of the innings. Livingstone cruised to his fifty off just 21 balls, and having reached 124 for 3 in 13 overs, Kings looked all set for a 200-run total.
Nalkande, though, jolted them with two wickets in two balls - both Jitesh and Odean Smith holed out to long-on. M Shahrukh Khan hit Shami for back-to-back sixes before Rashid dismissed Livingstone and Shahrukh to leave them 154 for 7.
That soon became 162 for 9. Rahul Chahar and Arshdeep Singh then added 27 in 2.1 overs to lift Kings to 189 for 9. At that stage, it felt like Kings had made up lost ground but that didn't turn out to be the case.
