Gujarat Titans registered a win over Punjab Kings in the 18th match of the IPL 2023 which went down the wire on Thursday. In the game played at Punjab's homeground IS Bindra Stadium, Gujarat won by six wickets. After winning toss Hardik Pandya-led GT opted to bowl. Coming to bat first, PBKS managed to score 153/8. In response, GT chased the target in 19.5 overs with 4 wickets in hand as Rahul Tewatia ended it off in style with a four.
Interestingly, this was GT's 11th win in the 12 chases. Mohit Sharma who was adjudged as th player of the match. finished with impressive figures of 4-18 by taking two crucial wickets and at an economy of 4.50. On the other hand, Shubman Gill stabilized Gujarat's innings and contributed 67 runs off 49 balls to guide his team closer to win.
Gujarat defeated Punjab in the last over of the thrilling match. Chasing 154, Gujarat got off to a great start. They registered 44 runs on board in the first four overs. However, Kagiso Rabada, who came in the 5th over, dismissed Wriddhiman Saha (30) to draw the first blood for his team. Sai Sudarshan (19) then registered a partnership with Shubman Gill to stabilize their innings. After this, captain Hardik Pandya came out to bat and went back to the hut by scoring only 8 runs.
Then David Miller (17*) pulled off the match with Gill (67) and led the team closer to victory. However, in the last over, Gill was dismissed by Sam Curran. Gujarat needed 4 runs from the last two balls. That's when Rahul Tewatia gave his team a win by hitting a brilliant four.
Batting first in the match, Punjab Kings scored 153/8 in the 20 overs. They had a bad start as their opener Prabhsimran Singh returned without opening an account on the 2nd ball of the innings. Then skipper Shikhar Dhawan got dismissed for 8 runs. After this Matthew Short scored 36 runs. On the other hand, Bhanuka Rajapaksa scored 20 runs and Jitesh Sharma scored 25 runs. Apart from this, Sam Curran and Shahrukh Khan scored 22 runs each.
Punjab Kings Playing XI: Prabhsimran Singh, Shikhar Dhawan(c), Matthew Short, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Jitesh Sharma(w), Sam Curran, Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Kagiso Rabada, Rishi Dhawan, Arshdeep Singh
Gujarat Titans Playing XI: Wriddhiman Saha(w), Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Hardik Pandya(c), David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Alzarri Joseph, Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma, Joshua Little
