2 min readMay 26, 2026 10:59 PM IST
Gujarat Titans’ much vaunted batting lineup have fallen in a heap against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Qualifier 1 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and it all started with opener Sai Sudharsan falling in rather bizarre fashion in the third over. Sudharsan was out hit wicket with the bat flying out of his hands and touching the stumps after hitting the ground, thus becoming the first in the IPL to be dismissed twice in this fashion.
The incident happened off the third ball of the third over. Sudharsan cut pacer Jacob Duffy and the ball had seemingly gone to the boundary for four. However, the RCB players were celebrating and Sudharsan walked back with a rather dumbstruck GT captain Shubman Gill looking on. The bat had slipped right out of Sudharsan’s hands as it swung after he completed the shot, bounced once on the pitch and then grazed the off stump.
The last time he got dismissed in this manner was in the 2022 IPL against the Mumbai Indians. Kieron Pollard was the bowler at the time and he had bowled a bouncer at Sudharsan. The latter went for a pull shot which he missed. The bat flew out of the bottom hand and smashed into the off stump. Overall, Sudharsan is the 20th player to be out hit wicket in the history of the IPL. His wicket triggered a collapse from GT and they eventually lost as many as five wickets in the powerplay while chasing a mammoth target of 255.
While there was some debate over whether Nitish Rana was out hitwicket earlier this season in a match between the Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings, the last man to fall to this rather rare form of dismissal was in the 2025 season. Interestingly, it happened to be a player representing GT as well. Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis was out hit wicket in the Eliminator against the Mumbai Indians.
