IPL 2022, GT vs PBKS, Top Performances: Tewatia's double blows with Gill's 96 take GT to 2nd spot

IPL 2022, GT vs PBKS, Top Performances: Shubman Gill's 96, Rashid Khan's 3-22 and Liam Livingstone's 64 are the top performances. Gujarat moves to 2nd place in points table.

Rahul Tewatia's two sixes on two balls helps GT beat Punjab, GT move to 2nd (Images ©BCCI_IPL

Brief Scores: GT 190/4 ( Gill 96, Sudharsan 35, Rabada 35/2) beat PBKS 189/9 (Livingstone 64, Dhawan 35, Rashid 22/3, Nalkande 37/2) by six wickets

Player of the Match: Shubman Gill (96 off 59 balls)

Punjab Kings (PBKS) were up against the Hardik Pandya-led Gujarat Titans (GT) at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Friday night.

Jonny Bairstow made his debut for Punjab Kings today, so in-form player Bhanuka Rajapaksa had to sit out of the eleven. Gujarat Titans also included two IPL debutants in their eleven, Sai Sudharshan and Darshan Nalkande.

Gujarat Titans won the toss and put the opponents in to bat. Punjab lost their first two wickets early in the innings. However, opener Shikhar Dhawan and Liam Livingstone revived the innings by stitching a vital partnership for the third wicket. Livingstone's destructive knock and final overs hitting by Jitesh Sharma and Rahul Chahar helped their side to post a huge total of 189 runs on the scoreboard.

Gujarat opener Shubman Gill made a well-measured 96 off 59 balls in response. But in all fairness, it was Rahul Tewatia who stole the show with back-to-back sixes off the final balls to snatch the game from PBKS’ clutch. GT won their third consecutive match by six wickets and duly replaced Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the second spot in the points table.

Let’s scan the top three performances from the GT vs PBKS game, IPL 2022:

Liam Livingstone scores 27-ball-64 against Gujarat Titans (Images ©BCCI/IPL

Liam Livingstone lights up the stadium

When Red Army got reduced to 34 for two, explosive English cricketer Liam Livingstone came to bat in the middle. He went for big strokes from the start only. He smoked a huge six off debutant pacer Darshan Nalkande and followed it with another off leg-spinner Rashid Khan in the next over. The 28-year-old batter continued to smack Nalkande to all parts of the stadium in the next over.

Livingstone added 52 runs with opener Dhawan. Rashid dismissed Dhawan on a personal score of 35. Before this encounter, Rashid bagged the wicket of Dhawan three times in five IPL innings while conceding only 34 runs off 35 balls.

Then Livingstone and new batter Jitesh Sharma played aggressively and collected 24 runs in an over of spinner Rahul Tewatia by smashing three sixes together. In the same over, Livingstone completed his second fifty in this season of IPL off just 21 deliveries, which is the second-fastest fifty in this season of IPL.

Even after completing his half-century, Livingstone continued to play his shots. Finally, Rashid Khan dismissed Livingstone in the 16th over of the innings as the batter went for a pull shot that went straight into the hands of mid-wicket fielder David Miller. Livingstone made 64 runs off 27 deliveries with the help of seven fours and four gigantic sixes. Due to this explosive knock of Livingstone, his side got past 150 in just 15 overs.

Read More: IPL 2022, PBKS vs CSK, Top Performances: Livingstone's all-round hand (60 & 2-25) helps Punjab win

Shubman Gill's 96-run innings helps Gujarat Titans beat Punjab (Images ©BCCI/IPL

Shubman Gill aces the chase

While chasing a huge total of 190 runs, GT opener Gill cracked two boundaries in the first over of the innings only. In the next over, he continued to smack boundaries off pacer Arshdeep Singh.

Even after he lost his partner Matthew Wade in the fourth over, Gill continued to bat freely. One down batter Sai Sudharshan supported Gill well by smashing occasional boundaries.

Shubman Gill continued to play elegant boundaries, however, he was once dropped by bowler Odean Smith in his follow-through when the batter was on 45. In the next over, Gill completed his second fifty in this season of IPL from just 29 deliveries.

His partner Sudharshan was foxed by leggie Rahul Chahar to dismiss him on a personal score of 35 runs off 30 deliveries. Gill continued to pummel elegant boundaries with flawless timing. Gill reached to nineties and was near his first IPL hundred. However, due to required run rate pressure, the youngster hurried to play a big stroke off pacer Kagiso Rabada and got caught at extra cover by Mayank Agarwal.

Gill’s phenomenal knock of 96 runs off just 59 balls was studded with 11 elegant boundaries and one six. Rabada dismissed Gill only once before this game in five IPL innings, though he conceded only 12 runs off 23 deliveries in those innings.

Read More: IPL 2022, GT vs DC, Top Performances: Gill's 84, Ferguson's 4-28 help GT eclipse DC, take 3rd spot

Rashid Khan takes 3-22 against Punjab Kings (Images ©BCCI/IPL)

Rashid Khan took three

In this high-scoring game, Rashid Khan bagged three crucial wickets after giving a miserly 22 runs in his quota of four overs. When opener Dhawan added a vital partnership with Livingstone which could have taken the whole game away from Titans, Rashid broke the partnership by taking the wicket of Dhawan.

Rashid's most prised scalp was Livingstone, who played a whirlwind knock of 64 runs off just 27 deliveries. Also, he sent back batter Shahrukh Khan who smacked two back-to-back sixes in the previous over. Every wicket of Rashid helped his side to control the game which could have easily gone far from the Titans. Rashid is the only bowler, who conceded less than six runs an over in this high-scoring game.

Rahul Tewatia did it again

Rahul Tewatia, who made his name by smashing five sixes off Sheldon Cottrell in an over in IPL 2020 against Punjab Kings, repeated an even more famous feat on Friday against the same opponents. After the phenomenal knock of Gill, the Titans found themselves embroiled in the final overs of the game, due to the economical bowling of Arshdeep Singh.

Titans needed 19 runs off the last six balls; many would bet that the opponent will win the match in this situation, however, Tewatia came in the middle and delivered one, six, six in the final over to help his side to clinch the match from the jaws of defeat. Tewatia made only 13 runs in the match where nearly 400 runs were scored, but those 13 runs decided the match for both teams.

IPL 2022 Points Table

IPL 2022 Points Table

What’s to come

There will be two games in IPL on Saturday. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will be at odds with Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai. This game is scheduled to begin at 15:30 hours IST.

The second game will be between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium in Pune. The game will begin at 19:30 hours IST.

Here are some of the Top Twitter reactions from GT vs PBKS game, IPL 2022:

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