Coming into their ninth game of the season, Shreyas Iyer and his men, the runners-up from IPL 2025, were looking to get back their winning streak after having suffered their first defeat of the season to the Rajasthan Royals in their final home ground appearance at the PCA Stadium in New Chandigarh.
Shreyas Iyer’s side have been an outstanding batting side, but they have struggled with the ball, as they have failed to tighten the shackles, even with mammoth targets on the board. Shreyas Iyer himself has admitted the same thing.
On the contrary, the Gujarat Titans have won the matches on the back of some promising show by their bowlers. Kagiso Rabada is the highest wicket-taker for them in this season with 16 wickets from 10 appearances.
Mohammed Siraj has been wonderful, while Jason Holder’s inclusion has added immense quality to their deck. Titans’ batting department still depends a lot on their top three, though Jason Holder might be relied upon to contribute in the death overs.
GT pacers dominate, Shedge-Stoinis’ brief partnerships fails to see PBKS through to a promising score
The Gujarat Titans bowlers have worked stunningly against some of the strongest batting units in this edition of the IPL. They have exploited the conditions and the matchups against teams, especially on their home ground at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Mohammed Siraj struck early in the power play as he dismissed Priyansh Arya and Cooper Connolly on consecutive deliveries and brought Shreyas Iyer much earlier to the crease. Shreyas has been strong against spinners, while he has struggled a bit against seamers with the new ball.
Kagiso Rabada struck against the other PBKS opener, while Jason Holder broke the back of their middle order with two wickets in his two overs after the powerplay. PBKS had half of their team back in the dugout with less than 50 runs on the board.
However, Suryansh Sehdge and Marcus Stoinis played a fine knock in the middle overs, also adding some momentum to the innings with a 70+ partnership through that phase. They had done a really good job bringing them back into the game.
However, Rabada returned with a massive breakthrough against Shedge. Jason Holder’s double strike against Marcus Stoinis and Xavier Bartlett in the death overs restricted the Kings to a score of just 163, with Marco Jansen tested with the bat for the first time this season.
Sai Sudharsan’s half-century and Washington Sundar’s promising finish helps GT to a crucial win against PBKS
GT batters Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill, who have shown promising form in the season, came out to chase the target of just 164 runs against one of the most uneconomical bowling lineups in this season of the competition.
Arshdeep Singh was not handed the new ball in the first over; however, he dismissed the GT skipper in the second over of the play. Shubman Gill skied one up, and the catch was safely completed by Cooper Connolly. With the massive breakthrough, they saw a slight opening in the game.
Jos Buttler and Sai Sudharsan held their nerve and saw them out of the powerplay; however, Vyshak removed Buttler after the powerplay, and the seamers managed to restrict the run flow to some extent.
Sudharsan held his nerve, and alongside Washington Sundar, he took his innings deep with a massively important win against Shreyas Iyer’s side. The Titans saw it over in a highly fought contest as Sundar hit Stoinis for a six off the penultimate ball of the final over of the game.
I personally feel it was a great score- Shreyas Iyer
“I personally feel it was a great score on a wicket where the ball was doing a bit at the start, especially the new ball. Their bowlers made the best use of the surface—the way they were hitting the lengths and the deck.”
“It was right at the stumps and not giving us many options to open our arms and score runs. We lost four wickets, I assume, in the powerplay. To get to 160 from there was a phenomenal effort,” PBKS batters get backing from skipper Shreyas Iyer.
“With the new ball I thought we would be able to hit our line and length and get early wickets. But that didn’t work out. But the way we fought till the end—kudos to the efforts. The attitude and approach were excellent. We missed out on hitting the hard lengths,” said Shreyas Iyer further.
Shreyas Iyer showed some promising mindset despite the loss: “We’re still on top of the table, which is what matters. We’ll take positives from this game. It’s a great challenge going forward in the IPL (playing on such pitches) because it tends to bring up the attitude of the bowlers as well. It can level up their confidence, especially after being hit for 50-60-odd runs in the previous game and then coming here and bowling excellent overs. We wanted to win, but it didn’t click.”
