The Hardik Pandya-led Gujarat Titans seem to have resumed normal services after a bit of a stutter against Kolkata Knight Riders as they defeated Punjab Kings by six wickets at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali on Thursday, April 13.
During the chase, Shubman Gill batted well and scored a match-winning fifty to win the contest for the defending champions. JioCinema IPL expert Aakash Chopra was fairly amused by the batting effort of Gill and heaped praise on the youngster after the game.
“You’ll see pure cricket shots from him. The pitch was nice, no doubt about that. You’re not chasing a large total, that’s also true. Whenever you see him, you think being strong technically will also help you in T20 cricket. It liberates you. It doesn’t box you in, instead, it gives you freedom. You can succeed by playing perfect cricket, we’ve seen this from Virat Kohli and now we’re seeing him do it too,” said Chopra on JioCinema.
“He was prepared. He has enough variations to manage within four overs and he was excellent. After the last game, where they had to find an experienced bowler to bowl at the death, they realized it was Mohit Sharma. It’s wonderful to see him pick up Man of the Match,” mentioned Kumble on JioCinema.
“If I could make the decision to award the Player of the Match, I would have given it to Shubman Gill. He’s the only person to hit a half-century. We can talk about how flat of a pitch it was as much as we want, we didn’t see 200 runs scored nor did we see 150 runs chased down easily.
“If the match result says the bowlers enjoyed more than the batters, our perception doesn’t matter. Both teams played the match and only one player made a half-century, he should be awarded Man of the Match.”
