IPL 2023: Gill's stormy half-century, Gujarat beat Chennai by 5 wickets

The first match of the 16th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) was played between defending champions Gujarat Titans (GG) and four-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK). In this match played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Gujarat defeated Chennai by 5 wickets.

Gujarat Titans won the toss and decided to bowl first. Batting first, Chennai Super Kings set a target of 179 runs in front of Gujarat Titans. Rituraj Gaikwad scored the maximum 92 runs for Chennai. Apart from him, Moin Ali played an inning of 23 runs. Dhoni hit a four and a six in the last over to take the team's score to 178 for seven wickets. He scored 14 runs in seven balls. Rashid Khan, Alzarri Joseph and Mohammed Shami took two wickets each for Gujarat. At the same time, Joshua Little got a wicket.

In reply, Gujarat Titans achieved this target with four balls to spare by losing 5 wickets with the help of opener Shubman Gill's brilliant half-century. In the last two overs, Gujarat needed 23 runs to win. Then Rashid Khan took the lead as soon as he came to the crease and along with Rahul Tewatia hit 15 runs in Deepak Chahar's 19th over.

Now 8 runs were needed in the last over to win. Tushar bowled the first ball wide. On its next ball, Tewatia equalized the score by hitting a six and won the match by hitting a four on the next ball. Rashid scored 10 runs in three balls with the help of a six and a four, while Tewatia scored an unbeaten 15 off 14 balls.

Rajvardhan Hungergekar gave the first blow to Gujarat Titans. He got experienced batsman Wriddhiman Saha caught by Shivam Dubey. Saha scored 25 off 16 balls. Gujarat Titans made Sai Sudarshan their first impact player. Sudarshan replaces Kane Williamson. Williamson was injured while fielding. After that, he was out of the match. Sudarshan was sent in to bat after Saha's dismissal. In the 10th over, Rajvardhan Hungergekar caught Sai Sudarshan by wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Sudarshan scored 22 runs off 17 balls.

Meanwhile, Shubman Gill completed his half-century in the 12th over. He touched the 50-run mark by taking a single off the second ball of Mitchell Santner. But then captain Hardik Pandya got out in the 13th over. He was clean bowled by Ravindra Jadeja on the first ball. Hardik scored eight runs off 11 balls. After this Shubman Gill was dismissed by Tushar Deshpande on the last ball of the 15th over. Tushar was roped in as an impact player. He dismissed Gill on the last ball of the 15th over. Shubman Gill scored 63 off 36 balls. He hit six fours and three sixes in his innings.

Gujarat Titans have got a fifth blow in the form of Vijay Shankar. He was dismissed by Rajvardhan Hungergekar on the last ball of the 18th over. Shankar scored 27 runs off 21 balls. Mitchell Santner took his catch. Rajvardhan Hungergekar took three wickets for Chennai, and Tushar and Jadeja took one wicket each.