LSG vs GT: Shubman Gill holes out to long-off off Krunal Pandya, registers his second duck against LSG

The Super Saturday in the Indian Premier League 2023 has begun with its first fixture between Gujarat Titans (GT) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow. GT are coming into this match having lost their previous encounter against Rajasthan Royals (RR). On the other hand, Lucknow are coming into the game having beaten RR in their previous match.

GT captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and elected to bat first, however, the decision didn’t prove to be right as they lost their star opener Shubman Gill in just the second over of the match. The 23-year-old came down the track to smack Krunal Pandya over long-off but ended up mistiming the shot which went straight to Ravi Bishnoi.

Notably, it was his second duck against LSG in his IPL career as he also got out without troubling the scorers on Match 4 of the 2022 edition at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. In the second meeting during the 2022 season, against the KL Rahul-led side, the opening batter played a brilliant knock of 63* off 49 balls at the MCA stadium in Pune.

The Punjab-born batter has been the highest run scorer for Gujarat so far in the tournament having scored 228 runs in six innings at an average of 38 and a strike rate of 138.18 with two fifties to his name.

Coming back to the match, after losing their opener early, Wriddhiman Saha and Hardik Pandya are trying to steady and have finished the powerplay on 40/1 after six overs with Saha on 34* off 24 and Pandya on 6* off 10.

GT desperate to get back to winning ways

Gujarat Titans lost their previous fixture against RR as they failed to defend a total of 177 despite having the opposition reeling at 55/4 after 10.3 overs. Sanju Samson (60 off 32) and Shimron Hetmyer (56* off 26) played scintillating knocks to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. They’re ranked fourth on the points table with three wins from five matches.