'.....You will get a tight slap' - Virender Sehwag lambasts Shubman Gill for decelerating during GT's chase against PBKS

Match 18 of the Indian Premier League between Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans turned out to be another final-over thriller as chasing a paltry target of 154, GT ended up dragging the match to the last over and won the game on the penultimate ball of the match. Opener Shubman Gill top scored for GT with his knock of 67 off 49 balls; however, he got dismissed in the final over of the match, with Gujarat still requiring six to win off the final four balls.

Rahul Tewatia once again did the finishing job for his side, scoring a crucial boundary on the second last ball with his team needing four off two and took his side home. Captain Hardik Pandya wasn’t too happy with his side dragging the game till the last over and said that he would like his team to finish matches early going forward.

After GT’s narrow win, former India opener Virender Sehwag was heavily critical of Shubman Gill, who slowed down in the middle overs even after being set at the crease. Gill was 35 off 22 balls at one stage but took 18 more balls to reach his half-century. Sehwag pointed out that Gill’s acceleration came after he completed his fifty, and had he not scored quickly, matters would have gone worse for GT.

"He scored 67 off 49 balls but when did he reach his fiifty? He reached his fifty off, maybe 41-42 balls, so in 7-8 balls he has scored 17 more runs. The acceleration came there, after he had reached his fifty. If even that had not happened then GT would have been chasing maybe 17 instead off 7 in the last over," Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.

The legendary India batter further suggested Gill put his team first instead of personal milestones, or else he will get a tight slap from cricket.

"You can't think let me score a fifty and we will anyway win the match. This is cricket. The moment you think about your own performance (instead of the team), you will get a tight slap from cricket. You can't think like that. If he had showed the same intent and played at close to a strike rate of 200 when he was nearing fifty then he could have reached his milestone a lot earlier and save more deliveries for his team," Sehwag added.

It got slower with the old ball: Shubman Gill

The 23-year-old also admitted he got slower towards the end as it was difficult to bat with the old ball. 

"It got slower with the old ball. So we needed to get off to a good start in the powerplay. We lost a bit of momentum when Hardik bhai got out. It wasn't a big score but it was important to rotate the strike and not have dot balls," he said.

Captain Pandya also said that it would’ve been a tough pill to swallow had Tewatia not finished the game for them.

"To be very honest I would not appreciate for the game to go this deep. There was definitely a lot for us to learn from this game... It would have been a tough pill to swallow if the game had gone the other side. I would like to finish the game earlier, not a big fan of taking it to the last over," Pandya said in the post-match presentation.