IPL 2023: MI's Suryakumar Yadav sends 'special' message to Shubman Gill after GT's win over PBKS
Gujarat Titans roared back to winning ways with a six-wicket victory over Punjab Kings after Mohit Sharma's excellent return to the IPL and Shubman Gill's 49-ball 67 in Mohali on Thursday.
FollowGujarat Titans returned to winning ways with a six-wicket victory over Punjab Kings after Mohit Sharma's excellent return to the IPL and Shubman Gill's 49-ball 67 in Mohali on Thursday.
Medium pacer Mohit marked his comeback with figures of 2/18 as holders GT restricted PBKS to 153 for eight. In his first league game since 2020, Mohit was exceptional in the penultimate over, giving away as little as six runs.
When their turn to bat came, Gill led the way with his fine half-century as Gujarat Titans completed the chase of 154 in 19.5 overs, four days after suffering a heartbreaking loss to Kolkata Knight Riders.
Having done duty as the team's net bowler last season, Mohit, who has also played for the Indian team, including in the World Cup, mixed his pace and varied his lengths well throughout his spell.
Later, the young Shubman Gill once again showed his class with quality innings that contained seven fours and a six. From GT's point of view, Gill needed to stay on till the end, especially after the dismissal of captain Hardik Pandya with the team still 48 runs away from their third victory in 34 balls.
"Mohali is always special," wrote Gill in an Instagram post following his half-century against Punjab Kings. Among the stars and fans who commented on the Indian batter's post was fellow India teammate Suryakumar Yadav. SKY, who has been out of form and struggling to come good for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2023 yet, wrote: "And you are even more special ehhh!"
Several fans responded to Suryakumar's message to Gill, requesting the Mumbai Indians batter to show off his explosive batting style that has been missing for some time now.
Meanwhile, Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya said his batters must be more aggressive in the middle overs for the rest of the IPL 2023 games. GT won the title in their debut season last year.
"To be very honest, I would not appreciate the game to go this close from the situation we were in. There was definitely a lot for us to learn from his game. That's the beauty of sports, it's never over till it's over," Hardik said at the post-match presentation.
"So we will go back to the drawing board. I think we can take a couple more risks in the middle overs. We should take this risks and play shots in the middle overs, need to make sure the game does not go so deep," he added.
Also read: IPL 2023: Despite poor form, Suryakumar Yadav continues to lead ICC T20 batter rankings
(With inputs from PTI)
