Live blog - Gujarat Titans cruise to comfortable win against Sunrisers Hyderabad

Pat Cummins won the toss in Ahmedabad, but unlike the ODI World Cup final, he did not make the right call as Sunrisers Hyderabad's score of 162 for 8 was comfortably chased by Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad to make it 11 wins out of 12 for home teams in IPL 2024.

Noor Ahmad, Mohit Sharma and former Sunriser Rashid Khan suffocated the big-hitting team in orange to keep them down to a below-par score, and as the surface got better in the evening, the Titans rode on contributions from Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan and David Miller to see them through.

An afternoon start in Ahmedabad promised a dry surface with help for spinners, and that's why Cummins wanted Sunrisers to make first use of the pitch. Expecting the same, the Titans dropped fast bowler Spencer Johnson to give left-arm wristspinner Noor his first outing of the season.

Noor struck first over when he got a googly to rattle Travis Head's stumps right after the powerplay before the opener could do heavy damage. His googly was particularly effective on this surface, bowling 13 of them and only conceding ten runs. His spell of 1 for 32, numbers partly ruined by some late hits from Sunrisers, gave Titans control from one end as the other bowlers rattled off the others.

Noor's bowling also lifted his senior Afghanistan team-mate Rashid's game. Rashid conceded 49 against Chennai Super Kings in their last game and started Sunday's spell with a 15-run over courtesy Abhishek Sharma's twin sixes.

However, Rashid returned strongly to keep Heinrich Klaasen relatively quiet, and a skiddy ball from the wristspinner accounted him for a 13-ball 24 in the 14th over. Rashid then made an equal contribution next over in Aiden Markram's dismissal when he dived forward to complete a difficult catch running in from long-on.

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All that talk about Miller going slow, and he has taken only one over to change that perception again. With a bit of a niggle bothering him, Miller decides to go hammer and tongs, and he takes it all out on Markande in a 26-run 16th over. Titans need only 25 off 24

That's now three games done, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar is yet to take a wicket in IPL 2024. Coming into this game, he had conceded 104 runs in eight overs, but today he finishes with 0-27, a much, much, much better bowling return.

Against both Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians, Bhuvneshwar made promising starts to his spell but ended up leaking big runs in the death overs. Today he bowled three overs in the powerplay itself and conceded 21. It was important for Sunrisers that Bhuvneshwar finished well, and he did by conceding only six in the 15th over.

But Titans are still ahead with eight wickets still in hand. Titans 114/2 in 15 overs

David Miller has crossed 30 only three times in 15 innings this year and averages 29. His strike rate of 119 this year is also his worst in 13 years, a steep drop from 2023 (135.2) and 2022 (147.2).

Today, too, he has scored only 12 in his first 15 balls. Yesterday, we chatted with our experts to explore why his form has fallen.

I always tell my friends that the first ball after a break is the most dangerous ball, and it has proved correct again. Gill dances down the track to hit Markande straight back but the googly is mistimed straight to long on. He falls for 36 in 28.

Markande has been excellent for SRH this season, btw. He is playing as the lone wristspinner in this XI, and this has been a point of focus for Sunrisers because they have not got a great spinner since Rashid Khan's exit. They did buy Wanindu Hasaranga, but he hasn't arrived in India yet, and it's not easy for him to find a place in the XI either without some solid overseas quartet in their XI at the moment. Even though he got hit for 52 against Mumbai Indians, that was a factor of the target MI were chasing. Against KKR, his 2-39 very nearly set up the SRH win before their batters failed to chase it down.

From being 11 in 12 balls, Gill has smacked 25 runs in his next 15 to accelerate after the powerplay. Titans' current run-rate of 8.26 is now above the required run-rate of 8.06, just where the home side wants to be.

Gill has relied on the odd boundary amidst risk-free grounded shots to keep their score moving. He is now 36 in 27.

Titans 74/1 in 9 overs with the time out taken.

Are Titans way too reliant on Shubman Gill? And is Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowling poorly this IPL? Both players are in action at the moment with steady performances but nothing groundbreaking. Yesterday we caught up with Mitchell McClenaghan and Varun Aaron to dissect both cases.

So it is indeed spin that gets SRH the first breakthrough. Shahbaz knows Saha really well from their days of playing cricket for Bengal together, and on this occasion, Saha cannot clear midwicket. However, he has played a decent hand, scoring 25 at a strike-rate of almost 200. Has allowed Gill's slow start to be unnoticced.

Here's impact sub Sai Sudharsan at No. 3, joining Gill. Titans 36/1 in 4.1 overs

Gill has used his bowlers smartly in the back end. He introduced young Darshan Nalkande for overs 16 and 18 against the relatively inexperienced pair of Shahbaz Ahmed and Abdul Samad and he put in a solid shift.

From the other end, Mohit Sharma offers great control to not leak runs in the dangerous back-end period. He did get hit by Samad for a six, but returns to pick up Shahbaz Ahmed and impact sub Washington Sundar in back-to-back balls.

He doesn't get a hat-trick but starves Samad of strike for most of the 20th over. He ends up with terrific figures of 3-25 in four overs and Titans need 163 to win.

Looking back at the last five overs, the Sunrisers could score only 40 runs, too little in this format. Across 20 overs, only five of them went for 10+ runs, and as it stands, this target looks very gettable. From Sunrisers' side, they think this track will spin more, so they introduced Washington Sunday as the impact player and not someone like Umran Malik.

Abdul Samad: "It is a dry surface and it is a good score on this kind of pitch. A score of 180 would've been slightly better."

Even though Klaasen tore into Noor with two sixes in his final over, his struggles against Rashid Khan are well documented, having scored at a strike-rate of only 77 against him.

And it proves to be true today as well, as Rashid gets a fullish ball to stay low while skidding through onto the stumps. Klaasen lasts only 13 balls today, out for 24.

Next over, Rashid shows he is more than just a spin bowler. Standing at long-on, he charges in as Aiden Markram punches a ball straight back, and he throws his body forward to earn Umesh Yadav a wicket too. Markram gone for 17 in 19 balls, and Sunrisers are in trouble with the fall of the two South Africans in overs 14 and 15.

Klaasen starts off with a first-ball four, a signal of his intention and also the pure form he's enjoying.

Shiva Jayaraman from our stats team recently dug into Klaasen's numbers to share with this version of the batter is like no other person you've seen before. Here's what he found.

The Titans keep chipping away with wickets, and this time it is Mohit Sharma who bowls a cutter outside off, forcing Abhishek to mis-hit a chip to cover. James Franklin, the SRH bowling coach, said a few moments ago on air that the feedback he's got is the pitch is two-paced and sticky. Seems like Mohit capitalised on that along with his bowling variation.

Klaasen is in early with ten overs still to go! Sunrisers 75/3 in 10 overs

The left-arm wristspinner has dazzled in two overs with his wrong'uns, classical legbreak and the skiddy one that goes straight through. For 11 balls he keeps Sunrisers quiet, and very nearly dismisses Abhishek too.

But he strays with one wrong'un too many, and Abhishek clatters him for a boundary that brings Titans' first four in 20 balls. The boundary aside, he's bowled seven dots in his first 12 balls.

His first over:

His second over;

The Titans did not play Noor Ahmad in the first two games, but with Titans aware that only wickets can derail the Sunrisers, they went with Noor instead of Spencer Johnson in the day game.

The theory has worked perfectly in his first over itself. He gets Travis Head missing a slog and the dangerous batter is gone for 19 in 14 balls. This outing won't be as memorable as his ODI WC final performance here.

Aiden Markram joins Abhishek with Sunrisers at 58/2 in 6.4 overs

Before this game, in 23 balls, Abhishek Sharma had hit Rashid Khan for three fours and three sixes, averaging a boundary every 3.6 deliveries. His strike-rate against Rashid was 204.

And as Rashid bowls his first over, the numbers gets stacked even heavier in Abhishek's favour. Abhishek smacks the Afghan for back-to-back sixes to take Sunrisers to 56/1 in six overs. Gill's plan to restrict runs with Rashid does not pay off.

Speaking of Rashid, when he struggles, the Titans struggle too. This used to be rare, but since last year's tournament, he has leaked nine runs an over roughly once every three matches. The Titans have lost 83% of the games where Rashid has finished with an economy of 9+.

Mayank Agarwal is caught at deep square leg, this time for 16 in only 17 balls. Azmatullah Omarzai hit him on the pad in the first ball of the fifth over but that wasn't deemed out. Next ball, though, Agarwal - desperate for a move on - attempts a clip over the leg side, but is caught by Nalkande in the deep.

This is the third time Agarwal is out trying to take a delivery that is back of a good length. Against MI and KKR he fell to the pull, this time it is the flick off the waist.

In walks Abhishek Sharma at No. 3, fresh from hitting the fastest T20 fifty for SRH in 16 balls in his last outing.

Lots of runs, and lots of runs quickly seems to be the plan for Sunrisers. Travis Head takes off in a flash with boundaries off Azmatullah Omarzai and Umesh Yadav, while Mayank Agarwal isn't timing it perfectly but continuing to swing his bat.

Omarzai hasn't troubled either batter but Umesh with his length balls skidding onto the batter on a stump-to-stump line has hurried the opening pair. Umesh also gets a wide decision overruled with a smart review.

The toss is done and as expected with the Sunrisers, they have batted first after winning the coin flip. Cummins continues his run of winning tosses in Ahmedabad, and they are unchanged. So expect a similar batting template where someone gets replaced by Washington, Nitish Reddy or Umran Malik. The other two subs on the bench are Glenn Phillips and Upendra Singh Yadav. Unadkat keeps his place, having replaced the injured Natarajan after the first game.

But more interestingly, the Titans have made two changes. Spencer Johnson had hinted at his chat with the broadcasters today that the pitch may spin more and break more with the day fixture at hand, and so he has been dropped for Afghanistan wrist spinner Noor Ahmad. Noor's attacking bowling offers more chances to take wickets, and maybe that's what the Titans are aiming for against this particular opponent.

The other change is the addition of seamer Darshan Nalkande to the set up, who replaces left-arm spinner Sai Kishore. Sai Kishore is now on the bench but unlikely to feature. Nalkande played three IPL games so far with moderate returns. Expect Sai Sudharsan to be the Impact Player later.

Rashid Khan of Titans: (returning from injury and playing) I've played five games already, some with Afghanistan, but coming back from a back injury is always difficult. Thankfully, I am well and with more matches I'll get better. (Adjustment in bowling due to back issue?) No such issue with my bowling style but since you don't spin the ball for 2-3 months, you need your fingers to get acclimatised to bowling again and finding the lengths again. You can see the best version of Rashid today itself, don't have to wait. I have overcome such injuries like this before too. (Gill the captain) He has given freedom to the youngsters and playing with him is a lot of fun. (Gill's plans to Rashid) Ashish bhai, our elder brother is there, and he guides both Gill and me. We chat about wickets, strategies, and the conversations always happen."

Mayank Agarwal of SRH: "Every coach gets a different strategy to the table. Lara is different from Vettori but they both want us to win. Cummins is a world-cup winning captain, his mind works quickly, and the way he is guiding this squad is a lot of fun. (277 score last game) Very honestly, you can't plan for these things. You just plan to play fearless cricket and one by one everyone carried the momentum of the batter who played before. We played in the flow of the game, and as the runs increased we did not stop. We wanted to score more."

Spencer Johnson of Titans (not in today's XI): "It's been pretty cool to play cricket in India. It's been something I wanted to do since growing up. Played only two games but an unbelievable crowd so it is special. (On his role as a death-overs bowler) My role may potentially change depending on the wicket we play on. (Frightening batting line-up in SRH?) We have the home ground advantage. Not sure what the wicket will do but it could be slower and lower. Overseas batters like to stand up and hit shots, we'll try to use that to our advantage. We got 80000 fans in the first night, it's a bit hot today so won't get quite the same crowd, but still looking forward to it. We had dew in the evening game here but the ball will be drier today so it could spin more too."