Twitter Reactions: Gujarat Titans show off their bowling strength against KKR by defending 156

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have succumbed to their fourth consecutive loss with the latest coming against Gujarat Titans. They couldn’t chase down 157 runs with the Titans once again showing off their power with the ball. GT registered their sixth win of the season in seven outings and have climbed to the top of the points table with this win.

Earlier, Gujarat Titans were propelled by their skipper Hardik Pandya who made a comeback after missing the previous game. With Vijay Shankar dropped, Hardik came out to bat at three as Shubman Gill‘s poor run in the season continued. He middled the shots early on taking the advantage of the field restrictions to stitch a 75-run partnership with Wriddhiman Saha for the second wicket. After the latter got out, David Miller came out and played a few lusty blows.

He added 50 more runs for the third with Hardik and at 133/2 after 16 overs and with the Titans captain crossing the 50-run mark, things looked ominous for KKR. But that wasn’t the case. KKR’s bowlers made a brilliant comeback striking regularly in the last four overs. It started with Miller being holed out in the deep and ended with Andre Russell picking a stunning four wickets in the last over. GT could only add 23 runs after Miller’s wicket and lost seven wickets.

GT ended with a score of 156 runs for the loss of eight wickets in their 20 overs, predominantly thanks to Hardik Pandya’s 67-run knock. He has looked in serene form in this IPL season and has led the team from the front with the bat taking responsibility every time the side has been in trouble.

KKR fight hard but fall short

KKR would’ve backed themselves to chase down 157 runs at the halfway mark. The momentum was with them having restricted the opposition to a decent total. But they surprised many sending entirely new opening pair of Sunil Narine and Sam Billings. The move clearly didn’t work as Mohammed Shami proved to be too good for them. The Titans continued to show off their pace as Lockie Fergsuon got the better of Nitish Rana while Yash Dayal sent back Shreyas Iyer to leave KKR reeling at 34/4 in the 7th over.

Rinku Singh, playing his first game of the season, then joined hands with Venkatesh Iyer to add 45 runs for the fifth wicket and bring the chase back on track. Both of them got out at the wrong time for the side with more than 50 runs needed for victory. The onus fell only on Andre Russell to take his team home. The Caribbean power hitter took the game deep and did well to smash 48 runs off 25 balls with one four and six maximums to his name.

He was reprieved early in the innings having got caught off a no-ball and he almost took his side home. But Alzarri Joseph smartly defended 18 runs in the final over to help GT win by 8 runs in the end. Rashid Khan bowled well to keep his side in the hunt and also led the team superbly to deservedly win the Player of the Match award.

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