IPL 2023: Rajasthan Royals vs Gujarat Titans, Match 48 - Talking Points and Who Said What?

The 48th game of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 featured a clash between the Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan Royals and the defending champions, Gujarat Titans, at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Friday, May 5.

Batting first, Rajasthan Royals only managed to post 118 runs on the board after the first innings, Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad put in excellent spells with the ball, taking three and two wickets to their names, respectively. During the run chase, brilliant performances by Wriddhiman Saha, Shubman Gill, and Hardik Pandya, propelled the defending champions to a win by nine wickets.

Here are the Talking Points from the RR vs GT clash-

Rashid Khan’s excellence

The ace Afghanistan leg spin wizard, Rashid Khan, was fabulous for Rajasthan Royals in the first innings. Bowling four overs, Rashid took three wickets and conceded just 14 runs. He dismissed Ravichandran Ashwin, Riyan Parag, and Shimron Hetmyer and was crucial in limiting the hosts to a low total. His spell also saw him earn the Player of the Match award.

Hardik Pandya’s blitzkrieg

Coming in to chase down a target of 119 runs, Gujarat got off to a brilliant start as Wriddhiman Saha and Shubman Gill played resilient knocks; however, it was the brilliant knock of skipper Hardik Pandya that ensured Gujarat’s win. Coming in after the fall of the first wicket, Pandya scored 39* runs in just 15 balls and propelled his side to a win.

The Saha-Gill show

Chasing a low total of 119 runs, Wridhhiman Saha and Shubman Gill came out to bat and established their dominance right away during the run chase. Saha scored an unbeaten 41 runs in 34 deliveries, whereas Gill amassed 36 runs in 35 deliveries to provide a brilliant start to the defending champions in the run chase. The opening stand helped Gujarat win the game in dominant fashion.

Losing skipper Sanju Samson said:

We had a very tough night, didn't really have a good powerplay to start with and struggled against the spinners. Their bowlers were bowling good line and length and kept on taking some crucial wickets during middle overs and when that happens there is nothing much you can do. We have to check our to-do list and see if we are actually playing good cricket, we need to pull our socks up, couple of crucial games coming up and we are looking forward to win games in the next couple of weeks.

Winning skipper Hardik Pandya said:

I let Rashid handle the business with Noor. Nobody better to communicate. Not much I have to do, I only suggest on when to have a slip. They are very confident about what they want to do, we only have conversations when things aren't going right. I feel Wriddhi is one of the best keepers, not easy to pick Rashid and Noor with their speeds. We are relaxed, doing my job and there are just a few chats that I or Ashu pa will have to pull up our socks when needed. I made some judgement errors in the last game, but today my job was half done by the time Shubman got out. I don't shy away from accepting mistakes, accepting is key to succeed for me.

Player of the Match Rashid Khan said:

Nothing different, just making sure I don't give any signals for the batters to pick me. I'm trying to minimize the difference between leg spin and googly, holding them the same way. I keep working on it in the nets, want to make it perfect. Sometimes I lose my lines, with my bowling if I can keep the consistency with line and length then I know the batters will have problems. I just keep it simple, try to understand what I do wrong in games. It is more to do with my line and length, I bowled a few bad balls and was punished. So I just look back and talk to the video analysts, and work on my pitch maps. It makes it easier, we speak Pashto in the middle. Noor is happy that I'm with him and he's always someone who listens and puts it the hard work. (On how many wrist spinners exist in Afghanistan) To be honest, more than 1000 now. I have been to a few academies and there are so many leg spinners. There were 250 of them after my first year of IPL. Now, I've been playing IPL for 6-7 years now, and there are so many in Afghanistan trying to copy me. I receive so many videos everyday of new leg spinners. I'm so happy to see Noor perform here, there are so many more like Qais Ahmed, Zahir Khan who haven't got their opportunities in IPL but when they do they can perform really well.