Gujarat Titans opener Shubman Gill played a scintillating knock of 104* as he helped his side gun down Royal Challengers Bangalore's 198-run target in the 70th match of IPL 2023. The win meant curtains to the playoff hopes for RCB as they lost the must-win game at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. The Challengers finished the season in 6th place and Mumbai Indians became the final team to reach the playoffs in the tournament.
However, things did not go well for the fans after Gill's gigantic effort to knock RCB out. After the game, the GT opener posted a picture of him from the match and captioned it as "It begins now". The post attracted applause from many fellow cricketers including Suryakumar Yadav, Rashid Khan, and Krunal Pandya. But a few fans also sent derogatory comments to the post.
Gill's sister also commented on the post and wrote "My babyyy". But the fans got angry over her reaction and started writing derogatory and abusive comments.
Talking about the match, GT chased down the 198-run target in the final over with 5 balls and 6 wickets in hand. Gill hit the winning runs off Wayne Parnell's free hit. He also completed his century on the winning six. The young GT opener ended his night with 104* off 52 balls. This also attracted the Player of the Match award for the 23-year-old.
After the match, Gill also opened on his knock. "I know my game. For any player, it's important to know who you are. The new ball was holding on a bit. It was getting wet due to the dew. I thought Vijay Shankar was trying to go too hard. Once he found the momentum, he hit it a long way," Gill said after his second IPL ton.
Gill became the only fourth player in IPL history to score back-to-back tons in the Indian cash rich league. Before this, Virat Kohli, Jos Buttler and Shikhar Dhawan were the only players to score consecutive hundreds in the tournament. Kohli became the third batter just in the first innings of the game. Kohli's 101* powered RCB to a competitive score of 197/5 in 20 overs.
