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IMAGE: Gujarat Titans Opener Shubman Gill impressed with 84 off 44 balls against the Delhi Capitals at the Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium in Pune, April 2, 2022. Photograph: BCCI/IPLGujarat Titans lost the toss against Delhi Capitals, were sent in to bat and their innings got off to the worst start possible as Matthew Wade was dismissed off the third ball of the match, caught behind by Rishabh Pant off Mustafizur Rahman.
Following that setback, Shubman Gill and Vijay Shankar remained unfazed and looked to build the GT innings in a steady and cautious manner.
While the boundaries were few and far between in the early overs, the batters kept rotating the strike, opting for ones and twos and occasionally looking to go after the bad balls.
After Shankar fell to Kuldeep Yadav in the sixth over, Gill soldiered on with Skipper Hardik Pandya with whom he shared a crucial 65 run partnership for the third wicket. In the post-match interview, Hardik admitted that 171 was at least 10-15 runs short of GT's preferred score, but was full of praise for Gill's contribution.
At the end of the 15th over, after Hardik had returned to the dugout, Gill went on the offensive, hitting two massive sixes off Axar Patel. He struck an imperious 84 off just 46 balls which included six fours and four sixes -- his highest T20 score -- before he was dismissed in the 17th over, attempting an ambitious pull off Khaleel Ahmed that presented a straightforward catch to Axar at deep midwicket.
'He was fantastic, this is the Shubman Gill we all want to see,' Hardik stated after the game. 'The kind of confidence he's carrying is going to come to all the batters.'