'Super Stuff' - Rahul Tewatia and David Miller take Gujarat Titans over the line in yet another last-over finish

Rahul Tewatia won the Player of the Match award for his excellent knock.

By Aditya Gajanan Kukalyekar verified

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Rahul Tewatia
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Rahul Tewatia. (Photo Source: IPL/BCCI)

Wow! How are Gujarat Titans managing to hold their nerves in last-over thrillers? For the fifth time in IPL 2022, they won the game in the final over in the chase to register their 8th win and strengthen their position at the top of the points table. Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) had the game in control with six overs to go with the ball but Rahul Tewatia and David Miller batted excellently to add an unbeaten 79 for the fifth to take the side over the line.

The 171-run target wasn’t easy by any means to chase for the Gujarat Titans given the huge dimensions of the ground. Their openers, Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha, were cautious to start with and churned timely boundaries to stitch a 51-run stand. The latter got out in a strange way chipping one into the hands of long-on fielder in the 8th over and in the very next over, Shubman Gill got out to Shahbaz Ahmed.

Wanindu Hasaranga impressed yet again as he ended Hardik Pandya’s stay in the middle and also sent back Sai Sudharsan to leave the Titans struggling at 95/4 in the 13th over. RCB definitely had an upper hand at this stage but David Miller and Rahul Tewatia joined hands then to not only resurrect the innings but also bring the equation down to 36 runs from the last three overs hitting some boundaries at the right time for the team.

The duo then turned the game on its head by churning out 17 runs in the 18th over and the target came within the Titans’ reach. Harshal Patel bowled a brilliant 19th over until Tewatia smashed a six to end the over on a high and bring it down to 7 runs in the final over. And they easily chased down the run with three balls to spare off Josh Hazlewood to take the team to their eighth victory.

Kohli and Patidar score fifties for RCB

Earlier, RCB and India fans were relieved to see their former captain Virat Kohli return to some kind of form with the bat. After opting to bat first, Faf du Plessis got out for a duck but Kohli played some exquisite strokes to get the team off to a decent start. He also unfurled some his trademark cover drive to leave the fans in awe. At the other end, Rajat Patidar also batted well to take the attack to the opposition. Interestingly, he also outscored his partner clearing the in-field comfortably in the powerplay overs.

The duo added 99 runs for the second wicket off 74 balls and couldn’t accelerate as expected. Patidar got out soon after scoring his fifty off just 29 deliveries while the heat seem to have gotten better of Kohli. The 33-year-old tried his best to up the ante but couldn’t. However, the whole country heaved a sigh of relief after he crossed the 50-run mark for the first time in IPL 2022. Even his wife Anushka Sharma stood up to applaud her cricketer husband and cheered for him.

But Kohli couldn’t get going after that with Mohammed Shami castling him for 58 off 53 balls. RCB couldn’t get the required acceleration going into the death overs and it was only due to Glenn Maxwell’s cameo of 33 runs off just 18 balls that they managed to cross the 150-run mark. After his knock, Mahipal Lomror, playing his first game of the season, hit some lusty blows in the last couple of overs to take the score to 170 in 20 overs.

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