New Delhi: MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings defeated Hardik Pandya’s Gujarat Titans by 15 runs in IPL 2023 Qualifier 1 and seal their spot in the finals of the Indian Premier League for a record number of 10 times. This is also CSK’s first victory over GT.
Batting first Ruturaj Gaikwad’s half-century (60 off 44) and Devon Conway’s 40 off 34 helped Chennai Super Kings (CSK) post 172/7 on the scoreboard. Conway was struggling for rhythm but Gaikwad was fluent as usual and stroked to his fourth fifty of the season.
GT pulled things back nicely during the middle overs and seemed to have control of the proceedings. Towards the end, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, and Moeen Ali chipped in with cameos to put up 172/7 on the board.
Gujarat Titans didn’t get the start they wanted for the chase as they lost both Wriddhiman Saha and skipper Hardik Pandya inside the first six over itself. The defending champions kept on losing wickets on regular intervals and failed to build a good partnership.
GT’s final hope was Rashid Khan but Tushar Deshpande took him out in the 19th over. He got out after scoring 30 0ff 16 balls. Rashid and Gill (42 off 38 balls were the highest scorers from the visitors’ side.
Ravindra Jadeja, Maheesh Theekshana, and Deepak Chahar grabbed two wickets each. However, it was Jadeja’s four-over spell that stood out from the rest. He only gave away 18 runs with an economy of 4.50 and grabbed the wickets of Dasun Shanaka and David Miller.
He constantly built pressure on the inform batting line-up of GT that didn’t allow them to build good partnerships in the game at any point in time. As a result, the defending champions lost their first six wickets on the score of 98 by the 15th over itself.
Jadeja also became the first left-arm bowler in IPL history to take 150 wickets. He also joined the list with Dwayne Bravo and Sunil Narine and became the third all-rounder with more than 1000 runs and has 150 IPL scalps in front of his name.
