It is with a surgeon’s precision that B. Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill go about threading the gaps on the outfield. On a placid pitch at the Arun Jaitley Stadium where batters did not have to second-guess themselves, the in-form openers did exactly that. With Sudharsan finishing unbeaten on 108 and Gill smashing 93 in an unbroken stand of 205, Gujarat Titans made light work of a target of 200 against Delhi Capitals in the IPL 2025 on Sunday. Titans’ 10-wicket win helped seal a playoff berth, and put K.L. Rahul’s century earlier in the evening on the backburner.
While Gill took a backseat early on, Sudharsan teed off almost instantly to take GT to 59 for none at the end of the PowerPlay. The 23-year-old from Tamil Nadu got going in a 20-run second over by T. Natarajan, taking full advantage of the left-arm pacer’s shorter lengths. He never took his foot off the pedal, eventually reaching his century in style with a six down the ground against Kuldeep Yadav.
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As the chase wore on, Gill also came into his own, denying the Capitals bowlers an opening that they were desperately yearning. The GT skipper was particularly destructive against DC’s spin troika. He hacked Axar Patel for a couple of sixes towards deep midwicket, and when the wrist-spin combine of Kuldeep and Vipraj Nigam offered a hint of flight, he showed no hesitation in going down the ground.
For Rahul, it turned out to be a bittersweet evening. Opening the batting for the second time in this year’s IPL, the 33-year-old led the charge for the host with an unbeaten 112 off 65 balls that took his side to 199 for three.
On a pleasant evening where dark clouds stayed away, Rahul took a liking to Kagiso Rabada in particular. In the sixth over, with the South African returning to competitive action after serving a doping suspension, Rahul smoked two sixes. More misery followed for the pace spearhead in his next over as figures of 2-0-34-0 suggest. By the end, though, he was left to admire the brilliance of two other openers in the opposition.
