Gujarat Titans defeated defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by 39 runs and strengthened their dominance at the top. Gujarat scored 198 runs for three wickets in 20 overs with half-centuries from Shubman Gill and Sai Sudarshan, in response, KKR's team could only score 159 runs for eight wickets in 20 overs. This is the first time this season that KKR has lost two consecutive matches.
Status of the points table
This is Gujarat's sixth win in eight matches and it remains at the top with 12 points. Gujarat has lost two games this season. At the same time, this is KKR's fifth defeat in eight matches and it is at the seventh place in the points table with six points with three wins.
Rahane scored the most runs for KKR.
Captain Ajinkya Rahane scored the most runs for KKR, who was dismissed after scoring 50 runs with the help of five fours and a six in 36 balls. While chasing the target, KKR did not have a good start and lost Gurbaz's wicket early. After this, Rahane along with Sunil Narine took charge of the team, but Narine was dismissed after scoring 17 runs. Then Rahane kept playing a good innings, but no batsman could support him at the other end. The inability to form a big partnership for KKR became a major reason for the defeat. This is KKR's second consecutive defeat. Earlier, it was defeated by Punjab Kings in the last match.
Apart from Rahane, Andre Russell scored 21, Rinku Singh 17, Venkatesh Iyer 14, and Ramandeep Singh scored one run for KKR, while Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who came in as an impact player, returned unbeaten after scoring 27, and Harshit Rana one run. For Gujarat, Prasidh Krishna and Rashid Khan took two wickets each, while Mohammad Siraj, Ishant Sharma, Washington Sundar, and R Sai Kishore got one wicket each.
Earlier, KKR won the toss and decided to bowl first, but Gill and Sudarshan made a century partnership for Gujarat, with the help of which the team was successful in giving a big target. Gill scored the highest 90 runs for Gujarat with the help of 10 fours and three sixes in 55 balls, while Sudarshan was out after scoring 52 runs with the help of six fours and a six in 36 balls.
Brilliant partnership of Gill-Sudarshan
Batting first, Gill and Sudarshan gave Gujarat a great start and added 114 runs for the first wicket. Gill completed his half-century in 34 balls and Sudarshan in 33 balls. This was Sudarshan's fifth and Gill's third fifty of this season. The pair of Gill and Sudarshan is a hit for Gujarat. Gill and Sudarshan hold the record of making the biggest opening partnership for Gujarat. The partnership of 114 runs between Gill and Sudarshan is the fourth biggest opening partnership for Gujarat. Gill and Sudarshan have made century partnerships for Gujarat thrice, including a partnership of 210 runs once.
Gill-Sudarshan's bat is spitting fire in IPL 2025
Gill and Sudarshan are in great form in IPL 2025. The pair of these two are making a splash this season. Gill and Sudarshan have so far added 448 runs in eight innings this season and their average has been 56.0. Gill and Sudarshan are scoring runs at a run rate of 8.93. The pair of these two have made century partnerships twice and half-century partnerships twice this season. Not only this, both of them have made 50+ partnerships a total of eight times in 17 innings since IPL 2024, which is the highest. In this case, they left behind Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, who have made 50+ partnerships seven times in 22 innings since IPL 2024.
This partnership between Gill and Sudarshan was broken by Andre Russell. After Sudarshan was out, Jos Butler came to the crease, and along with Gill, he accelerated the innings of Gujarat. Gill continued aggressive batting, but he missed out on scoring a century. During this, there was a partnership of 58 runs for the second wicket between Gill and Butler, which was broken by Vaibhav Arora.
After this, Harshit Rana gave the third blow to Gujarat by dismissing Rahul Tewatia without opening the account. Butler and Shahrukh Khan tried to play fast in the end, but KKR was successful in stopping Gujarat from scoring 200 runs. For Gujarat, Butler returned unbeaten after scoring 41 runs with the help of eight fours in 23 balls and Shahrukh returned unbeaten after scoring 11 runs with the help of one six in five balls. Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, and Andre Russell got one wicket each from KKR.
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