Jaipur: In a thrilling last-ball finish, with two runs needed off the final delivery, Rashid Khan scored a boundary to successfully chase 197 runs and seal a dramatic three-wicket victory for Gujarat Titans (GT) over the Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Wednesday, in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.
GT handed RR its first loss of the season, all thanks to the explosive innings by Rashid Khan, who scored 24 runs off just 11 balls. Rahul Tewatia also played a crucial role in the chase with 22 runs off 11 balls. The foundation for the chase was laid by captain Shubman Gill, whose sublime innings of 72 runs off 44 deliveries set the tone for the chase.
Earlier in the first innings, Sanju Samson and Riyan Parag continued their excellent form as both scored half-centuries to put up a competitive total of 196 runs for RR against the Shubman Gill-led Gujarat Titans.
Both Samson and Parag notched up half-centuries, with Parag scoring 76 runs off 48 balls and the RR skipper Samson scoring 68 runs off just 38 balls. Shimron Hetmyer also contributed crucial 13 runs off just five balls to help Rajasthan Royals put up a total of 196 runs on the scoreboard.
After winning the toss gill said, “Will bowl first. In case rain is in play, you want to chase things down. Not easy to set up a playing XI when your main players are injured. Couple of changes – Matthew Wade comes in for Kane. Manohar comes in for Sharath. In past couple of games we were in brilliant position. It’s just about finishing the crunch situations. Batting part is easy. When I’m batting I don’t think about captaincy. While captaining, you want to give players confidence.”
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal
Rajasthan Royals Subs: Rovman Powell, Tanush Kotian, Shubham Dubey, Keshav Maharaj, Navdeep Saini
Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Shubman Gill(c), Sai Sudharsan, Vijay Shankar, Abhinav Manohar, Matthew Wade(w), Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Umesh Yadav, Spencer Johnson, Noor Ahmad, Mohit Sharma
Gujarat Titans Subs: Sharath BR, Shahrukh Khan, Darshan Nalkande, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Manav Suthar
