Gujarat Titans beat Rajasthan Royals by 77 runs in Jaipur on Friday night to move to second spot on the IPL table but equal with leaders Sunrisers Hyderabad on points — both on 14 points. Rajasthan’s stand-in captain Yashasvi Jaiswal won the toss and chose to bowl. GT gave him 229 to chase. Shubman Gill made 84. Rashid Khan took four wickets. Washington Sundar’s unbeaten 37 off 20 pushed the total from 185 to 229. Rajasthan, missing Riyan Parag with a hamstring injury, were never in the chase — bundled out for 152 in 16.3 overs. For RR, a fifth defeat in their last six leaves them fifth on the table, their playoffs place no longer secure.
Gill, unhurried
Shubman Gill scored one run off his first five balls. Sai Sudharsan was already in flow at the other end, and Gill watched. When Archer came back in the fourth over, Gill punched him through cover for four, then lofted one back over long-off, holding the pose. Fifteen off the over. Then fifteen more off Archer’s next. In the eighth, scrambling for a run, he landed awkwardly on his left ankle. The physio came on, spray applied, and he batted on. When his fifty arrived in the tenth over — knocked gently to long-on — there was no celebration. Just a glove change. Their sixth century opening stand came and went, equalling Warner-Dhawan and Head-Abhishek for the most in IPL history. When Jadeja returned in the eleventh, Gill danced down and carved one over extra cover, then got down on one knee and hacked the next to deep mid-wicket, where Shimron Hetmyer palmed it over the fence. He went for 84 off 44, trying to scoop Brijesh over short fine leg — the timing gone, Tushar running back to take it cleanly over his shoulder. Washington Sundar finished what Gill had started — 37 off 20 in the final overs, GT from 185 to 229.
Short-ball effective
Gujarat Titans had posted 229. Rajasthan Royals needed to chase at pace. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi gave them exactly that — 36 off 16 balls, striking at 225. Then Siraj bowled him a short ball head-high at 146.6kph, climbing through from middle-stump line. Sooryavanshi couldn’t free his arms, the top edge went straight up, Arshad Khan took it at short fine.
Three balls later, Rabada — 152.1kph, angling across Jaiswal’s body, chest-high. Jaiswal spliced it, Sindhu ran in from extra cover. Two wickets, two short balls, inside five overs. Jurel had watched both dismissals and arrived with a plan — pulled the first short ball for six, sliced the next through cover for four. 22 off seven balls. Rabada came back for Hetmyer with something different — under 130kph, slower, cutting away. Hetmyer miscued, Holder waited at mid-on. The short ball had done two. The slower one did another. Rabada had options. Asked afterwards about bowling to a 14-year-old Vaibhav striking at 225, he laughed first. Then: “I guess what worked for 11 years will continue to work, right? Loads of hard work before the game, bit of analysis — but otherwise it’s same old, same old.”
Rashid’s four
Rashid came into this IPL having spent the off-season asking himself a question. “Like, okay, what’s wrong now? What’s the thing I’m missing?” The answer, he found, was rhythm — the ability to modulate pace, to bowl with full energy from start to finish. His back, operated on in 2023, had made him cautious. “When I came back, I was very, very careful with my back. That affected my bowling action and release and everything.” So he took two months, focused on his core, rebuilt. “I gave myself a couple of months after the last IPL and focused on my fitness. That’s something which can improve and does allow my body to bowl with the full rhythm.”
On Friday evening in Jaipur, the rhythm was back. Dhruv Jurel had made 24 off ten balls, Siraj’s short-ball plan dismantled in one over. Then the strategic timeout came and Rashid came on. First ball to Jurel: a googly. Jurel backed away to cut, missed, off-stump disturbed. Two balls later, Rashid bowled Donovan Ferreira with a leg-break that spun the other way — forward, expecting turn in, beaten by turn away, middle and off flattened. Two wickets in three balls, two entirely different deliveries.
He wasn’t done. Shubham Dubey swung at a full ball on leg, lost shape, leg-break sneaked back in, off-stump gone. Then Jadeja swept him for six — down on one knee, read the toss perfectly. Next ball, the straighter one, dinking in just enough. Jadeja’s bat came outside the line. Plumb. Holder mopped up the tail — Shanaka, Archer, Deshpande — with 3/12 from 2.3 overs. RR were all out for 152.
Story continues below this ad
Brief Scores: GT 229/4 in 20 overs (Gill 84, Sai Sudharsan 55, Washington Sundar 37*; Yash Raj Punja 1/37, Jadeja 1/34) beat RR 152 all out in 16.3 overs (Sooryavanshi 36, Jadeja 38; Rashid Khan 4/33, Jason Holder 3/12) by 77 runs.
