Bengaluru, Apr 3 Gujarat Titans produced an excellent all-round show to beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru by eight wickets in their Indian Premier League match in Bengaluru on Wednesday. Set a target of 170, GT completed the chase with as many as 13 balls to spare. The swashbuckling JosButtler top-scored for GT with an unbeaten 73 off 39 balls, while opener Sai Sudharsan struck a 36-ball 49 as the two added 75 runs for the second wicket to put the visitors on course for their second victory in three matches. Sherfane Rutherford remained not out on 30 off 18. Earlier, Mohammed Siraj struck twice in the powerplay before RCB recovered to post 169 for eight after being sent into bat.
Mohammed Siraj | Player of the Match: I was a bit emotional. I was here for 7 years, changed jersery from red to blue and was emotional but once I got the ball I was fine. I am Ronaldo’s fan and hence the celebration. I had been playing consistently, but during the break I corrected my mistakes and worked on my fitness. Once I was picked up by Gujarat Titans, I spoke to Ashish Bhai. He (Nehra) tells me to go enjoy your bowling and Ishu (Ishant) Bhai tells me what line and length to bowl. My mindset is to have belief and then the pitch does not matter.
Shubman Gill | GT captain: We have seen on this ground.. restricting them to 170 was a good effort. The wicket has something in it sometimes; you can score 250 as well as get early wickets, there was something for the fast bowlers in the first 7-8 overs and we knew if we pick early wickets then we are in the game. You are disapointed but you need to keep coming back, grab the next opportunity. We batted professionally considering the wicket. It is all about adapting to the situation and play according to that.
Jos Buttler: Enjoyed batting, the bowlers were fantastic, the fielding could have been better, myself better, we might have been chasing 30 runs less. I was embarrassed (on his dropped catch), Salty is a dangerous batter, I tried to celebrate in a Herschelle Gibbs style, tried to celebrate way too early. There was a bit of movement early on with the new ball, so credit to our openers for having played out the initial period. The fielding could have been better, but we have our bases covered, some fine bowlers, quality batters and some dangerous hitters in our squad.