It was a nail-biting affair last Sunday as the Rajasthan Royals took on the Gujarat Titans in a clash of the champions and after a pulsating encounter that went down till that final over, the Royals finally managed to turn the curse around as they scored their first win of the tournament in a thriller of the highest order.
David Miller led the charge with a well-constructed 46 while Shubman Gill’s opening heroics of 45 did set a decent tone for the Gujarat Titans. However, considering the texture of IPL 2023, where runs have flown like water through an open faucet, a target of 178 seemed pretty much achievable. Sandeep Sharma had a couple of wickets for himself at the end of an economical spell, starting things exactly from where he left against the Chennai Super Kings.
Here is what Gujarat Titans had to do against the Royals and yet struggled to pull off
The Rajasthan Royals came into the picture later in the game as they started the chase on a fine note but then were shortly seen stuttering in front of an invasive Titans as Mohammed Shami cropped the Pink army with a spell of 3 for 25 while Rashid Khan who went for a few runs in the last game, a rarity in the craft of cricket, did chime in with a couple of wickets.
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However, it was a very special knock from Shimron Hetmyer who scored 56 from 26 balls as they managed to walk away with a very special win against the Gujarat Titans. From almost an ineluctable situation where the win was certain for the Gujarat Titans, the Royals fought back and fought back really hard.
This is what Virender Sehwag had to say about Ashish Nehra
As the Titans suffered another defeat in the ongoing season, Virender Sehwag found a shot to take at Ashish Nehra in a desperate battle of post-cricket relevancy. He put forth his view stating, “We know Ashish Nehra from childhood and so I feel he was just dealing with his anxiety by talking to the fielders on the boundary. But what that might do is sometimes it might put pressure on the players. He said something to Shami too when he was on the boundary, and then even Shami ended up getting hit for runs in his last over.” Again it was that same strategy that won the trophy for the Titans in the preceding year.
