The champion team has started defending their title like champions. In the first match of IPL 2023 in Ahmedabad, defending champions Gujarat Titans defeated Chennai Super Kings by 5 wickets. Along with this, Gujarat’s winning streak against CSK continued in the new season as well. Hardik Pandya’s team won the second ball of the 20th over on the basis of Shubman Gill’s excellent innings and Rashid Khan’s all-round performance and completed the hat-trick of victory against Chennai.
The curiosity about the beginning of the new season was intact for many days. There were many reasons for this and a little glimpse of all of them was seen in this match. After a whole year, the fans got a chance to see Mahendra Singh Dhoni again on the field and Dhoni also entertained with a small innings. Then, there was a lot of discussion about the Impact Player rule and that was also seen in this match.
Shubman Gill, who made Gujarat champion by playing an unbeaten innings in last season’s final, started batting in the same style in the new season. Gill continued the excellent form of international cricket here as well and got off to a brisk start for Gujarat. He made a brisk start with Wriddhiman Saha scoring 37 runs in 4 overs. After Saha, B Sai Sudarshan came in as an impact player in place of injured Kane Williamson and went away after playing some good shots. The wickets of both were taken by debutant pacer Rajvardhan Hungergekar.
This time captain Hardik Pandya could not do anything for Gujarat but Gill continued the innings by hitting a half-century in 30 balls. Tushar Deshpande made the match exciting by dismissing Gill on the last ball of the 15th over.
Questions were being raised regarding the selection of Vijay Shankar and the way he batted for a long time, these questions also seemed justified. But this all-rounder from Tamil Nadu played a small but important innings. Rashid Khan, who came in the 18th over, hit Deepak Chahar for a six and a four to ensure the team’s victory. In the first two balls of the last over, Rahul Tewatia ended the match by hitting six fours.
The way CSK started in their batting, it seemed that Chennai would cross the 200 mark in the very first match of the new season. Young opener Rituraj Gaikwad, who failed to make an impact last season, had expressed his intentions from the first match itself. Devon Conway was bowled by Mohammed Shami in the third over itself but Gaikwad kept on wreaking havoc. In the 9th over, Gaikwad completed his half-century in just 23 balls by hitting 3 sixes on Alzarri Joseph.
CSK had completed 100 runs in the 11th over and the score was 121 when Ambati Rayudu’s wicket fell in the 13th over. Here the entry of Shivam Dubey gave Gujarat a chance to make a comeback. CSK sent Shivam in place of Ravindra Jadeja but he could not increase the pace of runs. Rituraj continued this work but after coming close to the century, he was dismissed in the 18th over. In the same over, Jadeja and Shivam were also dismissed in the next over. If Dhoni had not hit a six and a four in the 20th over, CSK’s score would have been even lower. Overall, CSK added only 78 runs in the next 9 overs after the 11th over.
