New Delhi: There have been very few imposing opening pairs this IPL like Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan. As they walked past the 200-run target set by Delhi Capitals with an over to spare at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Sunday evening, they secured Gujarat Titans’ spot in the playoffs. This is Capitals’ fourth loss at their home ground and they now need to win both their remaining games against Mumbai Indians in Mumbai on Wednesday and against Punjab Kings in Jaipur on the 24th.It was flawless batting throughout. If the left-handed Sudharsan took the responsibility of getting the team off to a flyer in the powerplay, Gill took over the role in the second half of the innings. With Gill scoring unbeaten 93 off 53 and Sudharsan returning unbeaten 108 off 61, the young duo planned out the chase to a nicety, something KL Rahul seemed to fall short in doing despite his unbeaten 112 off 65 balls while opening the innings in the first half of the match. Sudharsan’s effortless punch over the head of Kuldeep Yadav to bring up his century off 56 balls was a stamp of authority.Unlike the Capitals innings in the powerplay where they scored 45/1, Gill and Sudharsan ensured they never fell behind the run-rate at any stage. Perhaps, it’s just the rich vein of form of the two young boys in their mid-20s, but it never looked like they were going to be challenged by the Capitals bowling.There was hardly a mistimed shot between the two. Sudharsan tore into Capitals captain Axar Patel and T Natarajan in the powerplay before Gill went about effortlessly chipping sixes. Sudharsan’s no-look whip off Natarajan almost summed up how the duo was treating the Capitals bowling. Gill focussed on hitting down the ground as hit seven clean sixes and three boundaries while Sudharsan hit the gaps in his innings which had 12 boundaries and four sixes.Who’s that IPL player?Rahul may be on a mission to mend his reputation as a T20 player this IPL, but Gill and Sudharsan made his innings which had 14 boundaries and four sixes, look ultra conservative in the end.It’s been a while since Rahul has opened an innings. He has been branded as a middle-order bat following his travails up the order in T20 cricket till last year.Capitals decided to push their regular opener Abhishek Porel down to No. 3 to let Rahul take charge of the innings from the word go.After the powerplay, the Capitals management must have had second thoughts about the decision. For, Rahul looked out of breath in the first five overs, struggling to even strike at 100.It was the sixth over of the innings bowled by the Kagiso Rabada that got Rahul going. A neat hook shot followed by an effortless drive over the bowler for a six got him going. Even as he took time to get going against Mohammed Siraj and left-arm seamer Arshad Khan, there were no desperation.
And once Rahul became his sublime best, one could barely look away. It was perhaps a rare no-slog innings. Be it the controlled shortarm pulls off the spinners or clean lofted shots down the ground besides using the pace of the ball behind square-leg, Rahul was not leaving anything to chance.He put on 90 runs for the second wicket with southpaw Abhishek-Porel after the dismissal of Faf du Plessis. The veteran South African was dismissed for five off 10 balls. Porel started slowly with three off eight balls but soon got in the groove. Tristan Stubbs provided a good finishing touch with a 10-ball 21. In the end, though it was all in vain.
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