Deepak Chahar steamed in for his final over of his spell – 13th of the Gujarat Titans chase of 173. With 85 needing off 42, GT had to make the move in this over. Ravindra Jadeja and Maheesh Theekshana had applied the choke on a track that was gripping and with enough spin for the masterful spinners on offer, Chahar’s over had to be the clutch one for GT if they had any chance to overcome the sea of yellow at the MA Chidambaram Stadium and the Chepauk orchestrator MS Dhoni.
Shubman Gill, coming into Qualifier 1 on the back of two consecutive centuries and the lynchpin of the chase, had only faced 37 deliveries out of the 78 bowled so far, and it had been 12 deliveries since his last boundary.
IPL 2023 Qualifier 1: GT vs CSK Highlights
Chahar bowled a 111 kmph short ball just on the leg; Gill pounced, but just a tad early and found a diving Devon Conway gobbling up GT’s chances of direct qualification to the final.
Had it been not for the choke applied by Jadeja and Theekshana right after the powerplay, Gill would have waited that extra second to time the ball and execute the short arm jab pull to perfection.
Up till that point Gill had shown immense composure under pressure and negated the CSK spinners on a testing track with the deliveries gripping on the pitch and some staying low. That Gill’s control percentage was 95 when GT’s top order could hardly time anything speaks volumes of the young star’s immaculate technique.
Gill was the only one standing between CSK and a record 10th final appearance after CSK had managed 170 plus scores after being put into bat. Hardik Pandya will look back at his decision at the toss where he opted to bowl first in anticipation that dew will come into play in the second half CSK’s finger spinners would have a tough time controlling the ball. But, it was not to be, and that played into CSK and MS Dhoni’s hands. With no due, and three spinners to play with MSD could dictate the match as he had done on numerous occasions here and dictate he did!
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The partisan Chennai crowd, in anticipation of seeing their ‘Thala’ for the last time playing at the Chepauk – this season – or maybe for one final time bellowed when Dhoni came out for the toss; when he was shown on the big screen; when he came on to bat when he walked his team out to the middle after the mid-innings break – with each roar in unison trumping the one before.
But, when Conway took that catch of Gill, Chepauk probably roared the loudest up till that point. They knew it was a game set, a match for CSK. Gill stood still for that extra second after that catch, hoping that extra second he could have taken to time the delivery.
Coming off that unreal knock of unbeaten 104 against RCB at ever so loud and partisan Chinnaswamy Stadium, Gill would have hoped to repeat the heroics in front of another barn burner raucous crowd but he could never get going.
He lost Wriddhiman Saha as early as the third over, followed by his captain inside the powerplay overs, the guile of Jadeja had undone the big-hitting David Miller and with Gill’s wicket over later meant CSK were by now marching towards yet another IPL final.
However, the season is not done yet for Gill – GT will face the winner of the Eliminator in their home and can possibly try to redeem themselves. This was GT’s 4th loss while chasing in 18 matches and their first loss to CSK, ever.
Gill though has shown the world he is here to stay. While there were glimpses of his incredible talent when he turned heads in KKR after his debut in 2018 and then with a stellar international run at the start of the year, the level-headedness, and assurance Gill brought to this Gujarat Titans has elevated his status from the next big thing to that of ‘Crown Prince’. His score of 42 today, means he is still eight runs behind the Orange Cap leader – RCB’s Faf Du Plessis, but he has one more game and potentially the big one too, if GT can put behind possibly the worst-ever performance in this IPL tonight at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, and rally.
That GT, a nearly unbeatable team this year, succumbed to such a meek surrender is a testimony of how tough it is to beat CSK in their den, even though they only scrapped through to the playoffs and were written off by most ‘IPL Experts’.
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