IPL 2024: Sai Sudharsan reveals Gujarat Titans' strategy behind run-chase against Sunrisers Hyderabad

Sai Sudharsan revealed Gujarat Titans' gameplan after they chased down a 163-run target in the afternoon fixture on Sunday, March 31, against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Ahmedabad.

After Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat first, Sunrisers huffed and puffed their way to 162/8 in their 20 overs. Mohit Sharma was the pick of the bowlers for Gujarat as he bagged a three-for, conceding just 25 runs in his four overs. In reply, Wriddhiman Saha got the Titans off to a flying start with a 13-ball 25. Gujarat captain Shubman Gill also played a handy 36-run knock off 28 balls before Sai Sudharsan and David Miller's 64-run partnership brought their team into a position of dominance.

Sudharsan eventually departed for a 45-run knock off 36 balls, hitting four fours and a solitary six before Miller and Vijay Shankar took the Titans home with seven wickets and five balls to spare. After the match, the talented youngster noted that the pitch was difficult to bat on but it became a little bit easier under the lights in the second innings. The southpaw said that the strategy was to pick the right bowlers to attack and keep wickets in hand in order to take the game deep. In the 16th over, Sudharsan and Miller took down Mayank Markhande for 24 runs. The 22-year-old revealed that it was always their plan to target the spinner's over.

"Definitely it was a difficult wicket to bat on, not so easy where you can go after every bowler in every over. It's about choosing the right bowler, getting the maximum out of it and taking the games deep with wickets in hand. It's all about the situation, when the team needs more run rate, obviously, we need to step up. But today, it was a different scenario, it was a different wicket. I felt taking the game deep and keeping wickets in hand helped us today," Sudharsan was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

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"The wicket got a lot bit easier under the lights. And we also changed the momentum because the run-rate was going up as well. Playing against spinners got a bit easier and that helped us target the spinners as well. We were waiting for that one spin over, it was a conscious decision of taking down the spinner and it went our way, so grateful for that," he said.

Bowling Mayank Markande in the 16th over was a gamble that didn't work: Muttiah Muralitharan

Sunrisers Hyderabad's spin-bowling coach Muttiah Muralitharan said that they had used Markande in the 16th over to try and look for wickets as Gujarat were only three down at the time.

"The wicket was a little slow and low, and there was a little spin. We thought of getting close to 180-170, we missed out by 10-15 runs. They bowled really well and we couldn't capitalise. Even 160 is a manageable total. We were in the game till the 15th over. The 16th over we had to take a gamble - because they had lost only three wickets and then we took a gamble bowling Mayank against two left handers. We knew they would go hard in that over and they might mis-time and we can get a wicket. It didn't work," Muralitharan said.

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Sudharsan was all praise for the Gujarat bowlers for pulling things back in the last five overs as they restricted Sunrisers to a manageable total on the tricky surface. Interestingly enough, he also revealed the discussion that took place during the time out, which helped the team focus on pulling the game back in their favour.

"They were going with very good momentum, they were getting a lot of boundaries in the powerplay. So everybody felt it might go to 170-180 but we took wickets at the right time and at the end the last five overs were extraordinary from our bowlers. We had a conversation in the timeout, on pulling the team back, because they were maybe 10-12 runs ahead of what we thought," Sudharsan said.

Besides, Muralitharan acknowledged that Mohit made things difficult for his batters. The veteran lauded the team for trying hard and hoped that they would rectify their mistakes in the next game to return back to winning ways.

"The way Mohit bowled, it was difficult for our batters. We also thought that our bowlers adjusted. Pretty good game. We can't expect every game to go our way. Our boys tried really hard. There will be small mistakes. So, we have to make sure we don't do that in the next game so we can get into a winning momentum," Muralitharan said.