Gujarat Titans 146 for 7 (Tewatia 36*, Gill 35, Harshal 3-15) win Kings of Punjab 142 (Prabhsimran 35, Brar 29, Sai Kishore 4-33) by three wickets
Titans spinners wreck Punjab Kings
Rashid made it almost impossible to bat. He bowled a three-run fifth over when the Kings were going at 10.50, earlier. Noor, the left-armer, then bowled Rilee Russouw lbw in the seventh over to begin his period of immense spin dominance, in which another six would fall to the slow bowlers.
Rashid and Noor bowled together in the five overs after the powerplay and gave away only 24 runs, taking two wickets. Then came Sai Kishore, and by this stage the Kings were desperately looking for boundaries. They kept trying to strike at him, but he changed his pace and flight nicely, and kept deceiving them.
His first dismissal – of Jitesh Sharma – came at the stumps. His second, was the prized wicket of Ashutosh Sharma, who punched through the sweeper’s cover. He later had Shashank Singh caught and bowled, and Harpreet Brar caught on the straight boundary at the death.
In all, the spinners took 7 for 68 from their 12 overs.
But Tewatia hit two fours off Brar’s over to restore the required percentage and restore the Titans’ grip on the match. He then hit three fours – two with the bat down the ground, and one tickled at fine leg – off Kagiso Rabada’s 18th over, in which Shahrukh Khan also hit a six. They made 20 runs there, and essentially made the game safe, bringing the requirement up in five off 12 balls.
In defending their poor score, Livingstone took 2 for 19 from his four overs and Harshal Patel and Sam Curran supported him – Harshal took three wickets and Curran one. But the Kings had lost too much ground already with the bat.