Being asked to chase down 164, Gujarat Titans were the overwhelming favourites. On 49/1 after the Powerplay, they were on course. Having brought it down to 40 off 30 balls with six wickets in hand, they were still the favourites.

But Punjab Kings bowlers just hung in there.

They narrowed the equation to 17 runs needed off 12 balls. At that stage, Arshdeep Singh used all his experience to deliver a six-run over, leaving 11 needed off the final over. Yuzvendra Chahal had overs in store, but this had been a night for disciplined fast medium bowling.

Shreyas Iyer summoned Australian allrounder Marcus Stoinis. Impact Player era or not, this was an old-fashioned T20, and everybody had to chip in. But GT had their India player Washington Sundar keeping his cool to smash a full toss for six over fine leg with three needed off two balls.

At the start, Sai Sudharsan (57 off 41 balls) took it upon himself to anchor the run chase.

Bowlers had been itching to get into the tournament. Give them an inch and they would take a mile. The other day in Delhi, RCB bowlers found some swing and made the batters dance to their tune. Batting-friendly pitches have been the norm, but it shouldn’t be forgotten that the tournament is played on a home-and-away basis. The smarter teams will search for ways to maximise the home advantage.

Sunday was an opportunity for the pace-heavy GT to check if they could unsettle the usually belligerent Punjab Kings batters with some hard lengths. A spicy surface was the perfect recipe for GT’s new-ball bowlers. Batters used to planting the front foot to hit long and hard found the ball hit higher on their bat and quicker, and it was a difficult adjustment to make. Before they could recalibrate their approach, Mohammed Siraj had sent Priyansh Arya (2) and Cooper Connolly (0) packing in the first over. Like Siraj, Kagiso Rabada consistently bowled short of a good length too, with the odd bouncer thrown in.

He accounted for Prabhsimran Singh (15). The opener’s drive that usually goes screaming to the boundary landed in the hands of covers.

PBKS were reduced to 35/3 after the Powerplay and were down in the pits at 51/5, half way through the innings.

Then, as if to prove a point that keeping bowlers in the game does not necessarily kill T20 contests, PBKS batters began to stage a comeback. All it took was a wayward 13th over from Arshad Khan’s left-arm seam that got Suryansh Shedge and Marcus Stoinis to remind themselves that boundaries could be scored despite the adversity.

On what could easily have been a day for four pacers and Rashid Khan to bowl, GT deviated from the script by handing Manav Suthar the ball. Shedge, the power-hitter from Mumbai, took a heavy toll as he carted the left-arm spinner around the ground to make it a 27-run over.

That allowed GT to push their total up to 163 after being 66/5 at the end of 12 overs. For GT, Jason Holder (4-0-24-4) ably backed up the hard work of the new ball bowlers by consistently extracting bounce and movement.

Brief scores: PBKS 163/9 (S Shedge 57, M Stoinis 40, M Siraj 2/28, K Rabada 2/22, J Holder 4/24). GT 167/6 in 19.5 overs (S Sudharsan 57, W Sundar 40*, Arshdeep 2/24, V Vyshak 2/31). GT won by 4 wickets.