Kagiso Rabada and new-ball partner, Mohammed Siraj, shared five wickets for the Gujarat Titans to restrict the Kolkata Knight Riders to a modest 180 all out before Shubman Gill led his home side to a five-wicket victory in their Tata IPL match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday.
Captain Gill stroked a majestic 86 from 50 balls with eight fours and four sixes and, with opening partner Sai Sudharsan adding 22 from 16 balls and England’s Jos Buttler smashing a pair of fours and sixes in his 25 from 15 deliveries, the Titans tip-toed home on 181 for five with two balls to spare. But it was never that close.
Australian allrounder Cameron Green, the most expensive player in the league’s history, finally came good for KKR with 79 from 55 balls (7x4, 4x6), but there was little support with Jamaican Rovman Powell’s 27 from 20 balls the next highest score, and New Zealand opener Tim Seifert contributing 19.
Rabada claimed two early wickets in an outstanding powerplay spell and added Rinku Singh (1) in his final over to finish with 3-29 from his four overs, while in-form Mohammed Siraj, who shared all six powerplay overs with Rabada, finished with an outstanding 2-23.
The average first-innings score at the venue is over 200, so the visitors were always under pressure, and Gill made their predicament all too obvious as he raced to 46 from 21 balls against a toothless KKR attack on a near-perfect batting pitch.
Buttler continued his brutal return to form after consecutive half-centuries with a pair of fours and sixes in his first 10 balls before mistiming a pull against legspinner Varun Chakravarthy (2-34) to long on, but Rahul Tewatia (7*) ensured there was no late drama.
Excluding unusual mathematical peculiarities and an unprecedented run of victories, KKR already appear out of playoff contention with just a single point from six matches, marooned at the bottom of the log.
Gujarat, however, leap into solo fourth place with three victories and six points from their five matches. Punjab Kings lead with nine points from five matches, with Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Rajasthan Royals on eight points.
GUJARAT TITANS: Shubman Gill (captain), Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler (wkt), Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Ashok Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
Impact subs: Jason Holder, Shahrukh Khan, Manav Suthar, Kulwant Khejroliya, Anuj Rawat
KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: Tim Seifert, Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wkt), Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi
Impact subs: Varun Chakaravarthy, Finn Allen, Tejasvi Dahiya, Navdeep Saini, Manish Pandey