Gujarat Titans opening pair Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan became one of the most successful opening pairs in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL) following their explosive partnership against the defeding champions Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday at the Eden Gardens. After being put to bat, Gill and Sudharsan raised a 114-run partnership with their belligerent display to force KKR bowlers to tilt at the windmills. This was their sixth 100-plus run partnership, the joint third-highest in the cash-rich league.
Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers sit at the top with ten 100-plus run opening stands. Chris Gayle and stalwart Kohli’s opening pair feature in the second spot with nine stands. Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner, Faf du Plessis and Kohli are tied on six each.
GT’s opening pair started steadily by negating the impending threat from Vaibhav Arora and Moeen Ali. Gujarat found its first boundary of the match on the 12th delivery after Sudharsan went on the back foot and cut the ball hard to find the fence for a four.
With Gill taking his time at the other end to adjust to the conditions, Sudharsan, with his refined shots, picked up two boundaries in the next over to increase the run flow. The GT skipper, who stood unbeaten at 6(11) after the fourth over, had finally understood what was on offer and showed signs of opening his arms in his former home against his former side.
He hammered Harshit Rana for back-to-back fours and then welcomed mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy with a boundary as GT ended the powerplay with 45/0. Right after the powerplay, Gill unleashed a brutal onslaught on Moeen Ali.
With a strike clean as a whistle, Gill danced down the track and walloped the ball over deep midwicket for a 78m six. He topped it up with back-to-back boundaries to increase the run flow. Sudharsan joined the action and flaunted his boundary-hitting muscle in the next couple of overs.
In the 11th over, Gill pushed the ball away for a single to reach his third fifty of the tournament, while Sudharsan, with aplomb, cleared the fence on the next ball for a maximum and then sprinted for a double to celebrate his fifth half-century of the season.
As GT decided to go full throttle in the second half of the first innings, Kolkata found the breakthrough. Andre Russell hit the deck hard and generated extra bounce to outwit Sudharsan and lure out a faint edge to Gurbaz behind the stumps, ending the sizzling 114-run opening stand.
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