‘Par bhai vo to piche se Match Badal deta tha na’ – Fans go berserk as Gujarat starts Indian T20 League 2023 with 5-wicket win over Chennai

The 16th edition of the Indian T20 League started with a bang as the defending champions Gujarat defeated Chennai by 5 wickets in the opening match of the season at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday. Chennai scored 178 for 7 in 20 overs, while Gujarat replied with 182 for 5 in 19.2 overs.

Gujarat skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss and asked Chennai to bat first. Chennai didn’t make a great start as they lost the opening batter Devon Conway in the third over at the of the innings at a score of 14 runs. Mohammed Shami took the first wicket of the season. After that, Ruturaj Gaikwad took the charge and smashed 92 runs off 50 balls hitting four fours and nine sixes.

While Gaikwad took the innings forward with his knock, the wickets kept falling regularly at the other end. Skipper MS Dhoni hit a couple of boundaries in the last over as Chennai finished their innings on 178 for the loss of 7 wickets. Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, and Rashid Khan scalped 2-2 wickets each for Gujarat. While Joshua Little put one in his bag.

Chasing the winning total, Gujarat had a decent start as Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha (25 off 16) added 37 runs for the first wicket in 3.5 overs. After Saha’s dismissal, Gill put up a partnership of 53 runs with Sai Sudharshan (22 off 17), putting Gujarat in a commendable position to win the match. Gill went on to score the second half-century of the season and got out after scoring 63 runs off 36 balls including six fours and three sixes.

Gujarat started losing momentum after a good start

Gujarat started to lose their momentum after Shubman Gill’s dismissal. Vijay Shankar was taking the innings forward but he also got out on the last ball of the 18th over while trying to take on RS Hangargekar but ended up giving a catch to Mitchell Santner.

After that, Rashid Khan hit back-to-back boundaries in the 19th over to take the pressure away from Gujarat with 8 runs remaining off the last over. It was Rahul Tewatia then, who smashed a six on the first ball of the over by Tushar Deshpande, and on the next ball, he won the match for Gujarat by hitting a boundary. Gujarat chased the winning total by losing 5 wickets with four balls to spare.

This is Gujarat’s third consecutive win over Chennai in the Indian T20 League, while Chennai haven’t won a single match against them. Here’s a look at how fans reacted on Twitter: