GT vs SRH: Teammates help Noor Ahmad towards dugout after latter cops severe blow in follow through

Gujarat Titans’ spinner Noor Ahmad got injured during match 62 of the IPL 2023 between Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad on Monday, May 15 at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. While bowling the 16^th over of SRH’s innings, Ahmad copped a heavy blow on his right ankle as he failed to get out of the line of the ball hit straight back at him by Heinrich Klaasen.

The left-arm spinner immediately went down on the pitch in excruciating pain. The physio came running in, to look after the 18-year-old and the Afghanistan bowler was taken off the field with the help of a couple of his teammates. After Ahmad was taken off the field, Rahul Tewatia bowled the final ball to complete the 16^th over.

Notably, Ahmad didn’t have a great outing in the match as he gave away 35 runs in 2.5 overs and failed to pick up a wicket. It was just his second underwhelming outing in the ongoing season after he leaked 38 runs in his four-over spell against MI in GT’s previous fixture.

In the nine matches played so far in the tournament, Ahmad has picked up 11 wickets at an average of 22.63 and an economy of 7.74. 

Coming back to the match, after being put into bat first by SRH captain Aiden Markram, Gujarat posted 188/9 in their allotted 20 overs courtesy of a scintillating hundred by Shubman Gill (101 off 58). Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the pick of the bowlers for SRH as he picked up 5/30 in his four-over spell.

In reply, SRH could only manage to score 154/9 in their allotted 20 overs as they failed to counter the top-notch bowling by GT’s seamers. Only Heinrich Klaasen (64 off 44) looked in good touch from SRH as they lost the match by 34 runs. 

Both Mohammed Shami (4/20) and Mohit Sharma (4/28) picked up four-wicket hauls for Gujarat. Courtesy of their win, the Hardik Pandya-led side became the first team to qualify for the playoffs and will play in Qualifier 1 on May 23 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.