Kathmandu: In the shadow of Virat Kohli’s century, Shubman Gill also struck a century as the Gujarat Titans defeated the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 6 wickets in the final league match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 on Monday night.
Bangalore needed to win this match to qualify for the playoffs. However, despite scoring 197 runs, they were defeated and couldn’t make it to the top four, getting knocked out of the league. This benefited the Mumbai Indians. On Monday, in the first match, Mumbai Indians lost to the Sunrisers Hyderabad but still secured their place in the playoffs, finishing fourth in the league.
Previously, the former champions Gujarat had already secured the top spot in the league with an excellent performance this season, winning 10 out of 14 matches and accumulating the highest 20 points. Gujarat will now play against the Chennai Super Kings in the first qualifier to enter the finals. The Lucknow Super Giants, who finished third, will play against the Mumbai Indians in the eliminator match.
Gill’s splendid century
Young batsman Shubman Gill, following in the footsteps of Virat Kohli’s century, played a magnificent century as well, leading Gujarat to achieve the target of 198 runs with 5 balls to spare and 4 wickets remaining. Opening batsman Gill played an unbeaten knock of 104 runs off 52 balls, including 5 fours and 8 sixes. This was his second century of the season.
Gill partnered with Vijay Shankar for the second wicket, who contributed 123 runs. Vijay Shankar scored 53 runs off 35 balls. Gujarat won with an additional 19 runs.
Mohammed Siraj and Vijay Kumar Vyas, along with Harshal Patel, took one wicket each for Bangalore.
Kohli’s century in the shadow
Batting first on their home ground at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore lost 5 wickets despite Kohli’s unbeaten century, scoring 197 runs. This season, Kohli also achieved his second century in the IPL. Overall, he has scored the most 7 centuries in the IPL. However, it was not enough to secure a victory for the team.
Kohli scored 101 runs off 61 balls, including 13 fours and 1 six.
Captain Faf du Plessis contributed 28 runs, while Michael Breznan added 26 runs. Anuj Rawat scored 23 runs off 15 balls.
Nur Ahmed took 2 wickets for Gujarat, while Mohammed Shami, Yash Dayal, and Rashid Khan took one wicket each.