Mullanpur, Apr 21: Rahul Tewatia played a blinder, hitting an unbeaten 36 off 18 balls following a brilliant performance by their spinners led by left-armer Sai Kishore's four-fer helped Gujarat Titans survive a few anxious moments to score a comfortable victory against Pujan Kings in Match 37 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 on Sunday.

Tewatia came to bat with the Titans 97/4 chasing a modest target of 143 and flicked, reverse-swept and played some fine shots to race to 36 off 18 balls as he built on a patient knocks by Shubman Gill (35) and Sai Sudharsan (31) as they secured their fourth win of the season.

The win took GT to eight points as they moved to the sixth spot on the points table, trailing Lucknow Super Giants and Chennai Super Kings on inferior net run rate. All three teams are on eight points. PBKS remained in the 9th spot with four points from eight matches.

Gujarat Titans' victory was made possible by their spinners, who shared six wickets among them as Punjab were bowled out for a paltry 142 off the final delivery of the innings after skipper Sam Curran won the toss and elected to bat first.

The 27-year-old Tamil Nadu spinner Sai Kishore bowled an outstanding spell, cutting down on the pace and adjusting his length to use the low turn offered by the pitch to claim 4-33 in his four overs as the Gujarat bowlers strangled the PBKS batting unit in the middle overs.

Chasing a modest target, the Titans got off to a poor start as Wriddhiman Saha fell for 13 (11 balls) with the team score reading 25 within the Power-play. Saha pulled Arshdeep Singh straight to Ashutosh Sharma as he was out after hitting a boundary during his brief stay.

Titans skipper Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan cautiously negotiated the Power-play and raised 41 runs for the second wicket partnership. Gill (35) swatted and flicked off his pads Kagiso Rabada for successive fours in the third over and also hammered a boundary each off Harshal Patel and Sam Curran during his vital knock.

The Gujarat skipper also crunched England spinner Liam Livingstone for a four in the eighth over before he was for 35 off 29 balls, jumping out to loft a delivery that was slower than expected and handed a comfortable catch to Rabada.

A couple of overs later, Livingstone struck another blow, castling David Miller with a tossed-up delivery that skidded past the big swing by Miller and crashed into the stumps. Gujarat Titans slumped from 66/1 to 77/3.

Sai Sudharsan (31 off 34), who by lashing Arshdeep through backward point for a four off the first ball he faced, kept going from the other end as he scored runs mostly in singles. He paddle-swept Harpreet Brar for a four and flicked Sam Curran past fine leg when the skipper strayed off the line. But Curran had his man when Sai Sudharsan chopped onto his stumps with Gujarat 97/4. Azmatullah Omarzai (13) fell cheaply but Rahul Tewatia guided Gujarat Titans to victory with an unbeaten 36 off 18 balls despite Harshal Patel claiming two late wickets in the form of Shahrukh Khan (8) and Rashid Khan (3).

Tewatia, who thrives in scripting late fightbacks, blasted seven fours during his 18-ball knock, hitting three boundaries, two of them back-to-back off Rabada in the 18th over -- the over cost PBKS 20 runs. Before that, he reverse-swept and hoicked Harpreet Brar to the boundary in the previous over as Gujarat recovered from a difficult situation and sauntered to a comfortable victory.

Brief scores:

Punjab Kings 142 all out in 20 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 35, Harpreet Brar 29; Sai Kishore 4-33, Noor Ahmad 2-20, Mohit Sharma 2-32) lost to Gujarat Titans 146/7 in 19.1 overs (Rahul Tewatia 36 not out, Shubman Gill 35; Harshal Patel 3-15, Liam Livingstone 2-19) by three wickets.

(IANS)

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