 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Wriddhiman Saha is in the form of his life and he continued to ride the wave against Lucknow Super Giants on Sunday, May 7, 2023. His opening partner Shubman Gill's batting has also been impeccable and the two Gujarat Titans batters put on an exhibition for the home crowd at Ahmedabad.
Put in to bat on a flat track, Saha and Gill got off the blocks in a hurry, walloping Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan and Yash Thakur for big runs. Saha was the aggressor and he plundered runs around the field to put LSG on the backfoot.
Mohsin was clobbered for 22 runs in the fourth over as Saha smashed him for 2 sixes and two fours -- that brought up the 50-run mark.
For a while Gill was watching from the other end, but once he got his chance he clobbered the bowling too. He mixed style and power to keep the runs coming in boundaries.
Saha got to his half-ton with a huge six off Thakur in the 6th over as GT scored 78 for no loss at the end of the Powerplay. This was the quickest 50 by a GT batter.
The runs kept coming in heaps and Gill brought up his fourth half-century this season -- 50 coming off just 19 balls.
Saha was soon dismissed, but his 81 from 43 balls laid the platform for GT's huge score. His knock was studded with 10 fours and four sixes.
Their opening stand of 142 was the second highest opening partnership this IPL.
Saha's dismissal did not deter Gill who never took his foot off the pedal. He played perfect foil to Hardik Pandya, keeping the scoreboard ticking at one end and when the chance came, sending the ball to the boundary.
Gill eventually finished 94 not out off 51 balls hitting 2 fours and seven maximums.
With this knock, Shubman raced to the second spot in the race for the Orange Cap.
In 11 matches, he has scored 469 runs at an average of 46.90 and a strike rate of over 143. He has four half-centuries in the IPL 2023 and is also the second-highest run-getter this season.