IPL 2025: Gujarat Titans vs Rajasthan Royals, Match 23 - Who Said What?

Gujarat Titans (GT) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) clashed in Match 23 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Wednesday, April 9. RR won the toss and elected to bowl first, expecting help from dew later on.

GT suffered an early setback in the form of Shubman Gill (2 off 3) but Sai Sudharsan (82 off 53) combined with Jos Buttler (36 off 25) and Shahrukh Khan (36 off 20) to put GT in a position to score big. Rahul Tewatia (24* off 12) provided a late boost and GT ended up with a highly competitive 217.

In reply, RR had a bad start as Yashasvi Jaiswal (6 off 7) and Nitish Rana (1 off 3) were out within three overs. Samson (41 off 28) combined with Riyan Parag (26 off 14) and Shimron Hetmyer (52 off 32) but their wickets and Samson's effectively extinguished RR's hopes of winning the match. In the end, they lost the game by a massive 58 runs which has put a dent in their NRR.

Talking Points

1. Jofra Archer bowls a fiery opening spell

After Samson chose to bowl first, RR pacer Jofra Archer began the innings breathing fire. The Englishman was pumped up and bowled with great pace, gradually increasing it in the first over. His last ball of that over touched 152.3 kmph which is one of the fastest deliveries of the season.

Archer came back for his second over soon and knocked Shubman Gill's stump back with a pacy 147 kmph delivery. The right-armer welcomed his compatriot Jos Buttler with a venomous short delivery which the batter survived. Although Archer did not get any wickets later he continued to bowl as fast as he could. He ended up with figures of 4-0-30-1.

Also Read - WATCH: Jofra Archer's scorching delivery rattles Shubman Gill's off stump

2. Sai Sudharsan's purple patch continues

GT and Tamil Nadu opener Sai Sudharsan was the star of the match. The southpaw continued his good run of form today as he got going right from the beginning. Sudharsan played shots all over the field and kept the run-flow steady from his end. He formed two crucial partnerships - 80 with Buttler and 62 with his TN teammate Shahrukh Khan.

Sudharsan struck eight fours and three sixes to end up at 82. He looked like getting to a century but was caught behind off Tushar Deshpande's delivery in the 19th over. He is now the second-highest run-scorer in the tournament with 273 runs from five innings, just 15 runs behind the leader Nicholas Pooran.

3. All-round bowling performance from Gujarat Titans

After setting a 218-run target, the GT bowlers gave their team a great start with two early wickets. Arshad Khan and Mohammed Siraj were the destructors in the initial overs. Despite a couple of partnerships GT found their way to scalp wickets. The fall of wickets was regular and hence the opposition could not gather any momentum to overhaul the big total.

GT used six bowlers and all of them picked up at least one wicket. The pick of them was Prasidh Krishna with figures of 4-0-24-3. Rashid Khan and Sai Kishore picked up two while Siraj, Arshad and Kulwant Khejroliya picked up one each.

Also Read: Best Catch of the Match – GT vs RR, Match 23

Who Said What?

Sanju Samson, Rajasthan Royals Skipper

Around 15-20 runs too many in the bowling. Whenever we wanted to carry the momentum we lost wickets, when me and Hetmyer were batting it was still chaseable but my wicket changed the game. There was some purchase, the way Jofra bowled and picked Gill's wicket. But the way we bowled at the death, we need to look at it in the meeting tomorrow and come back better. When you lose games we also think should we have chased or batted first, we were expecting these conditions, this was a really good wicket, we want to respect the conditions and want to be a team who can win games while chasing.

Shubman Gill, Gujarat Titans Skipper

Good total on the board, it wasn't easy in the first 3-4 overs. The way Sai and Buttler batted was amazing. We'll take 220 any day of the week. And then our fast bowleres were very clinical to finish off the job. If you have difficulty in choosing the man of the match, it is a good problem for us to have. We are having a team where everyone contributes. Very pleased, when you have bowlers like Rashid it makes the captain's job easy. Everyone is very nice to me.

Sai Sudharsan, Player of the Match

IPL is the kind of tournament where you need the momentum from the start. Always a joy to contribute to team wins. The wicket was seaming a bit, so I took some time but knew we couldn't take a lot of time. Then I wanted to take the game deep. We wanted to have wickets for the death. We have the awareness if we lose early wickets that the set batter has to play long. I always try to see what I can do better, trying to improve my awareness and skill. I have worked a lot of basics which is helping me be a versatile batter.