Gujarat Titans Beats Chennai Super Kings By Five Wickets
Ahmedabad, 31st March 2023: The 16th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) started on Friday (31st March). The first match of the IPL 2023 was played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. In the first match of the tournament, Gujarat Titans defeated four-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by five wickets. Gujarat continued their unbeaten run against Chennai with this win at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium. This is their third win in a row against CSK. Gujarat has not been defeated so far. Shubman Gill was awarded the man of the match award.
In this match, the Gujarat Titans team won the toss and decided to bowl. At this time CSK scored 178 runs losing seven wickets in the stipulated 20 overs while batting. Gujarat completed this challenge by scoring 182 runs for the loss of five wickets in 19.2 overs.
Gujarat Titans made Sai Sudarshan their first impact player. Sudarshan replaced Kane Williamson. Taking advantage of that, he put on a brilliant half-century partnership with Shubman. He scored 22 runs off 17 balls. He was caught by Rajvardhan Hangargekar to Sai Sudarshan by wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Defending champions Gujarat Titans won the first match of the IPL 2023. Shubman Gill’s half-century was supported by impact players Sai Sudarshan and Vijay Shankar. Rashid Khan turned the match around with a magical knock. Shubman Gill completed his half-century in the 12th over. He reached the 50-run mark by taking a single off Mitchell Santner’s second ball.
Rituraj Gaikwad from Pune shined in the very first match of IPL 2023. Rituraj scored a half-century in this match to achieve the first-ever half-century in IPL 2023. Interestingly, he became the third batsman to score a maiden half-century for CSK in an IPL season. He looked set to score a century as well but was dismissed for 92 off 50 balls.
After losing the toss, Chennai got off to a bad start this time. The team got their first blow in the form of Devon Conway on 14 runs. However, opening batsman Rituraj Gaikwad completed his half-century on one side.
Apart from Rituraj Gaikwad, no other batsman could make a big inning. Moeen Ali scored 23 runs, while Dhoni hit a four and a six in the last over to take the team to 178 for seven. He scored 14 not out in seven balls. Rashid Khan, Alzarri Joseph, and Mohammed Shami took two wickets each for Gujarat. Joshua Little helped them with a wicket.
Apart from all-rounder Hardik Pandya, the Gujarat team also has batsman Shubman Gill in excellent form. Spinner Rashid Khan is one such bowler who maintains his rhythm and consistency. It was not easy to defeat the Gujarat team in such a situation. David Miller was not available for the opening match due to national team matches.
