As it happened: IPL 2022 - Gujarat Titans vs Punjab Kings, Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai

Who writes this man's scripts?

There was absolutely no chance of this sort of script even being possible when David Miller hit the fourth ball of the final over straight back to Odean Smith. If he'd just kept hold of the ball, Titans would have needed 13 off the last two balls to win it. But Smith saw Tewatia out of his crease at the non-striker's end, threw, missed, and conceded an overthrow.

Then it was Tewatia on strike with 12 needed off two. You can guess what happened next, because this man only performs miracles. One clean-ish hit that a leaping long-on tried his absolute best to keep within the field of play but couldn't manage to. And one incredibly clean hit that sailed well beyond that same boundary. He runs down the pitch, pumping his fists, punching his own helmet, and why wouldn't he?

Hardik Pandya's sitting in the dugout, not moving, a look of disbelief on his face. What has just happened? Rahul Tewatia has just happened.

A wide off the first ball of the final over from Odean Smith, but the idea was right. He was trying to slant the ball away from David Miller's hitting arc. He gets it right the next ball, and Miller swings and misses. In the desperation to get Pandya on strike, they risk a bye, and Bairstow calmly rolls the ball into the stumps to run the danger man out.

Titans now need 18 off five with Rahul Tewatia on strike. Can he, to ask the cliched question, do a Tewatia?

Rabada gets Gill with the penultimate ball of the 19th over, a wide yorker ending up as a wide full-toss that Gill slaps straight to Agarwal at extra-cover. He goes for 96 off 59 balls.

That was, incidentally, the 17th ball Gill faced since he hit his last boundary back in the 13th over. A mixture of good bowling and perhaps a bit of tiredness, I think. He scored ten twos in that innings. Only five times in the IPL have batters scored 11 or more twos in an innings.

There were two other full-tosses in that Rabada over that Hardik Pandya hit for four, but Titans are slipping well behind at the moment.

They now need 19 off the last over with Pandya and David Miller at the crease.

Mostly yorkers again, but also a quick, head-high bouncer to take Pandya completely by surprise.

Titans now need 32 off 12 balls, and Arshdeep has lowered their win likelihood to 20.27%.

First ball of the 17th over, Gill steps out a touch early and Chahar slips a quick legbreak down the legside. Gill misses, but Bairstow fumbles too, and misses the stumping.

Then Hardik Pandya gets hold of Chahar, cutting and lofting him for a pair of boundaries.

Then Chahar seemingly gets his revenge, cramping Hardik on the pull and getting him to miscue it high over the leg side. Rabada, running in from deep square leg, drops it while tumbling forward.

Thirteen off the over, and Titans need 37 off 18.

Around the wicket to the two right-handers, and mostly wide or wide-ish yorkers. Hardik Pandya hit a very good shot to get a boundary off the last ball, opening his bat face to squeeze the ball between backward point and short third, but only two runs off the other five balls. Titans need 50 off the last four overs.

Shiva Jayaraman, as always, has all the answers:

As good as Shubman Gill is on the leg side, his inability to score through mid-off and cover was hampering his effectiveness as a batter in the earlier IPL seasons. In the previous three seasons, Gill scored only 27.4% of his runs through the cover and mid-off regions and those runs came at an ordinary pace of 94 runs per 100 balls. He took 10 balls on an average to hit a boundary through those areas.

This season, though, Gill has seemingly addressed that issue. He has scored at a strike rate of 185.3 through mid-off and cover and that has reflected in the share of his runs through those areas as well. He has scored 36.4% of his runs through those areas and has hit 10 boundaries in just 34 balls (numbers correct till the 13th over of this innings).

The wrong'un does the trick for Chahar. He doesn't bowl it as often as some other leggies, but this one's perfectly pitched. Angling across the left-hander from over the wicket, then turning further away with a bit of extra bounce, and Sai Sudharsan's attempted slog-sweep ends up in the hands of extra-cover running towards the mid-off region.

Sudharsan goes for 35 off 30. A good-looking innings with some phases when he struggled to change gears, which you might expect from a talented batter without a whole lot of top-level experience. Gujarat Titans need 57 off 32 balls as Hardik Pandya walks in.

A strong over from Arshdeep Singh. A single first ball, and then three balls to the left-handed Sudharsan. He uses the left-armer's inward angle, plus his intuition that the batter is looking to make room, plus clever changes of pace, to give up just a leg bye off those three balls.

Then he bowls a very good short ball to Gill, angling in from round the wicket to cramp the batter for room, climbing to face height, and Gill plays a jaw-dropping pull that's more of a tennis-style swat, hitting down over the ball rather than across it, and he finds the gap between deep midwicket and long-on.

Still, only seven off that over, the 12th, and Titans need 70 off 48 balls.

...and Titans are 94 for 1, with a 51.33% chance of winning according to our win predictor. It's difficult to get yourself noticed when Shubman Gill's batting at the other end, but Sai Sudharsan has just played a terrific shot off Odean Smith, going deep in his crease to turn a near-yorker into a near-half-volley that he drills smoothly (as oxymoronic as that sounds) between mid-off and extra-cover.

Shubman Gill is batting as if he's 14 and he's taking the 10-year-olds of his neighbourhood apart in his backyard. Brings up his fifty with a drive drilled past extra-cover off Liam Livingstone's legspin. The landmark comes up off just 29 balls. Two balls later, he cuts surgically between backward point and short third for another four. At the end of that over, the ninth, Gujarat Titans are 88 for 1.

Oh, almost forgot to mention: Gill enjoyed a reprieve in the previous over when he flat-batted a shortish ball straight at Odean Smith but the bowler couldn't hold on to the reflex chance. He was on 45 at that point.

First ball post-powerplay, first ball from the legspinner, and Sai Sudharsan takes a big stride forward and slog-sweeps him for six over wide long-on. He's hooked Rabada for a four over short fine leg too. Confident start from the Tamil Nadu batter, and Titans end the seventh over at 66 for 1. They're in a good place, but our win predictor is still only giving them a 40.52% chance. Interesting.

Extra pace and bounce bring Punjab the breakthrough in the fourth over. Kagiso Rabada angles one across Wade, who looks to punch through the covers off the back foot, and only manages an outside edge to Bairstow - who's keeping wickets and not Jitesh Sharma. Titans 32 for 1 in 3.2 overs.

In at No. 3 is B Sai Sudharsan. Who? Read on.

Vaibhav Arora and Arshdeep Singh have sprayed it around a little in the first three oveea, and Gujarat Titans' openers have already hit six fours. Shubman Gill has hit five of them, and is looking in unreal touch. It's now 31 for no loss in three overs.

Gujarat Titans could have had Liam Livingstone’s wicket in the ninth over. Their ace bowler Rashid Khan had the England batter caught by Hardik Pandya excellently on the midwicket boundary. However, the replays showed that Pandya’s foot touched the boundary skirting with the ball still clutched in the hand. Livingstone was eventually caught off Rashid on the deep midwicket boundary in the 16th over. Livingstone biffed 44 off the 20 balls he faced after the reprieve. In spite of crossing 150 in the 15th over, Punjab ended up with 189 runs on the board.

What if the catch by Pandya were clean? How many runs would have Punjab Kings managed in that case? ESPNcricinfo’s Luck Index has an answer for the question. It estimates that the reprieve to Livingstone added 38 runs to Kings’ total. This is calculated through a complex algorithm, which takes into account the quality of the batters to follow and puts a number to the runs that the other batters (including the not-out batters at the end of the innings) would have scored off the extra deliveries that Livingstone faced. The algorithm estimates that the other Kings batters would have ended up scoring 32 off the 20 balls faced by Livingstone after the reprieve (and also factored in the six runs that came off the drop). Titans could have been chasing 152 instead of 190 here.

Punjab Kings scored 112 from overs 7 to 16 today, the third-highest middle-overs total that's been achieved this season. They have one other entry in the top three as well - 117 in their big chase against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

That middle-overs total was the product of their intent through those overs. That intent also cost them five wickets in that phase.

At a granular level, there can be some debate about how PBKS went about their innings today. Chiefly, you could make a good argument that it wasn't wise to go after Rashid Khan's last over when they had four overs to go after that and their last two recognised batters at the crease.

But at a bigger-picture level, it's harder to argue against their approach. Recency bias makes us feel that an innings that ended with a bang is a better one than an innings that went at a rapid clip for most part before fizzling out, but runs are runs, no matter when they come.

Today, PBKS didn't even fizzle out that badly - their tenth-wicket pair took a toll of the last two overs to set Gujarat Titans a pretty steep target. That, of course, may not have happened on another day.

Did Titans pull things back here? I think they did. At least somewhat as the last five overs produced only 37 runs and four wickets.

But did Kings get a formidable total? You cannot say no to that either. They got 103 in overs 8-15 and their last pair - Rahul Chahar and Arshdeep Singh - added 27 in just 2.1 overs. That propelled them to 189 for 9.

Darshan Nalkande says the wicket is playing really good, the ball is coming onto the bat, and he backs his side to chase this down. Remember, dew might play a part as well.

Rashid finally gets his man. Earlier Pandya had touched the boundary cushion while taking Livingstone's catch but this time David Miller is right at the boundary line and makes no mistakes. Livingstone falls for 64 off just 27 balls, bringing Rabada to the crease.

But Rashid still has three balls left in his spell and with the second of those he traps Shahrukh Khan lbw. He finishes his spell with figures of 3 for 22. After 16 overs, Kings are 155 for 7 and in the danger of being bowled out.

Kings' batting template is out there. Aim for 200 even if it means you would be all out for 100 sometimes. Jitesh Sharma tried to clear long-on against Nalkande but holed out to Shubman Gill at long-on. Odean Smith tried the same thing first ball; he too failed to clear Gill.

Shahrukh Khan took a single off the hat-trick ball before Livingstone pocketed two fours.

Rahul Tewatia didn't bowl in Titans' first game. In their second, he was brought on to complete Varun Aaron's overs after the fast bowler got injured. He went for 22 in two overs. Here he started with a short delivery outside off that Livingstone dispatched to the cover boundary. Then he dropped short twice against Jitesh Sharma. Each time the batter pulled him over the deep-midwicket boundary. On the next ball, Abhinav Manohar dropped Jitesh at wide long-off. Livingstone wrapped up the over with another six over deep midwicket. That also brought up the half-century for Livingstone, off just 21 balls.

Liam Livingstone knows only one way to bat, or so it seems. He hit the first ball he faced for four. Then he danced down the track to Darshan Nalkande and deposited him way over long-on.

In the next over, Livingstone pulled a googly from Rashid Khan to the deep-midwicket boundary, where Hardik leapt and took the catch but his boot also brushed the boundary cushion. Not out and Six!

In Nalkande's next over, he hit another six, and two fours, to take Kings to 86 for 2 after ten overs despite a sedate start.

Meanwhile, Lockie Ferguson has dismissed Jonny Bairstow, the short ball doing the trick once again. Bairstow was looking to ramp it but it kept coming and cramped him. In the end, he could only dab it towards short third man.

Before the IPL, the question asked of Hardik Pandya was: can he bowl? Hardik has answered that convincingly. Former India head coach Ravi Shastri is not surprised. Speaking on the T20 Time Out on Friday, Shastri showered high praise on Hardik the leader and believes that if fully fit, he can be seen as a potential candidate for India’s T20 captaincy.

Shastri: He is prepared to bowl with the new ball, he’s prepared to bat at No. 4. It tells you he is fit. He is very clear in his mind, the space he is now is a brilliant space. Right before this IPL, the question that was asked a lot of young captains – the word was KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant… Add Hardik Pandya. Don’t take your eye off the ball there, guys. This guy can lead a side. He’s got a good cricket brain. What I like about him now is his composure and his focus. You can see there is something between the ears that has clicked, that is making him focus in that fashion, even the way he is marshalling the resources in the field, even when the heat is on. That’s a very good sign.

How highly do you rate him as a communicator, his leadership qualities, tactical acumen?
Shastri: Excellent, if he is fully fit, excellent. You can compare him with any of the other three I mentioned.

Genuine option as a new ball bowler in T20 World Cup in Australia?
Shastri: Not on a regular basis. Depending on the surface, if the ball is seaming a little bit or it’s holding then maybe you can give him [the new ball]. You can always use him as a surprise weapon if he is fit.

In the last 18 months or so, there has been a lot of speculation about Hardik Pandya's bowling fitness. But looks like he has come out this IPL to quell all those discussions. Just like the last game against Delhi Capitals, he shared the new ball and struck in his opening over. Here he bounced out his opposite number, Mayank Agarwal. Agarwal went for a pull but was rushed by this 140kph delivery. In the end, it was a dolly for Rashid Khan at short midwicket.

Jonny Bairstow comes in at No. 3 and opens his account with a flicked four off Shami. On the other end, Shikhar Dhawan has fetched two fours via french cuts.

Kings 20/1 after three

Hardik Pandya wins the toss and opts to bowl first. He prefers a target in front given the dew can play a big role later on. Vijay Shankar and Varun Aaron are out for them. Kings too wanted to bowl first. Agarwal confirms Bairstow comes in for Bhanuka Rajapaksa.

Gaurav Sundararaman: Sai Sudharsan is a product of the TNPL. He is a good hitter. Darshan Nalkande has been around for a long time with all the squads and finally makes his debut.

Here are the XIs:

Punjab Kings 1 Mayank Agarwal (capt), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Jonny Bairstow, 4 Liam Livingstone, 5 Shahrukh Khan, 6 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 7 Odean Smith, 8 Arshdeep Singh, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Rahul Chahar, 11 Vaibhav Arora

Gujarat Titans 1 Shubman Gill, 2 Matthew Wade (wk), 3 Sai Sudharsan, 4 Abhinav Manohar, 5 Hardik Pandya (capt), 6 David Miller, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Darshan Nalkande, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Mohammed Shami

Titans too have handed a couple of caps - Sai Sudharsan, the left-hand top-order batter, and Darshan Nalkande, the right-arm fast bowler, are their two debutants. We don't know yet in whose place these two come in.

In the USA, you can watch the action live on ESPN+ in English and in Hindi.