Ahmedabad: Sai Sudharsan extended his purple patch with a classy half-century as the Gujarat Titans posted 217 for six against the Rajasthan Royals in their IPL clash here Wednesday.
Sudharsan was in sublime touch, timing everything to perfection. He hit eight boundaries and three sixes in his 53-ball 82 for his third fifty of the season.
After leaking plenty of runs initially in the IPL, Jofra Archer (1/30) is well and truly back to his best. With the new ball in hand, he cranked it up to 152.3 kph in his first over, then returned in his second to clean up Shubman Gill (2) with a steaming 147.7 kph inswinger that beat the inside edge and crashed into Gill’s off stump.
Archer then greeted Jos Buttler (36) with a sharp bouncer, but the former England captain responded a couple of balls later with a crisp four to the deep-cover boundary.
With Sudharsan taking charge, Buttler joined the party with back-to-back boundaries off Fazalhaq Farooqi (0/38) in the seventh over.
In the next over, he sliced Maheesh Theekshana (2/54) through the off side for a four before lofting him straight down the ground for another boundary.
But Theekshana had the last laugh, trapping Buttler leg before, ending an 80-run partnership.
Rajasthan skipper Sanju Samson immediately turned back to Archer in a bid to stem the flow of runs, and the Barbados-born pacer repaid the faith with a tight over that went for just six.
But Shahrukh Khan (36 off 20) exploded into action in the very next over, slamming consecutive boundaries before muscling one over deep extra cover to inject some much-needed momentum into the GT innings.
The boundaries kept coming as Shahrukh went after Theekshana in the 14th over that yielded 16 runs.
Royals responded by striking twice in quick succession, removing Shahrukh and Sherfane Rutherford (7) to pull things back.
Sudharsan was handed a life on 81 but couldn’t make much of the reprieve, as Tushar Deshpande induced a thin edge to send him back in the dugout.
PTI
