‘Wo free me hai isliye sab dekh rhe warna’ – Fans react as Indian T20 League opener touched 50 crore viewers on Jio Cinema

In the Indian T20 League 2023 opener, the defending champions Gujarat locked horns against four-time champion the Chennai franchise at the iconic Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Friday, March 31. The hosts won the match by 5 wickets and Rashid Khan was awarded the Man of the Match award for his brilliant all-round performance.

The digital sponsor, Jio Cinema touched 50 crore viewers in the Indian T20 League opener and it peaked with 1.6 crores when former India skipper MS Dhoni came into bat. If we talk about the game, the Gujarat franchise skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss and elected to bat first.

Batting first, the visitors scored 178 runs for the loss of seven wickets in the first innings. The highest scorer for them was their opener Ruturaj Gaikwad who scored 92 runs off 50 balls with four fours and nine sixes. Dhoni played a quickfire knock of 14 runs from seven balls which included one four and one six each. Experienced Indian players like Ambati Rayudu and Shivam Dube’s poor form with the bat continued.

Tushar Deshpande becomes first impact player of Indian T20 League

For the Gujarat side, the pick of the bowlers were Mohammad Shami, Rashid Khan, and Alzari Joseph who snapped two wickets each while conceding 29 runs, 26 runs and 33 runs respectively in their spell of four overs. One wicket was grabbed by Ireland left-arm seamer Joshua Little in his spell of four overs and conceded 41 runs.

In the second innings, both teams used their impact players. Before the start of the innings, Chennai brought in seamer Tushar Deshpande in place of Ambati Rayudu and on the other side after the fall of Wridhiman Saha, left-hand batter Sai Sudarshan came in place of injured Kane Williamson.

Gujarat chased down the target of 179 runs on the second ball of the last over. The highest run-getter for them was Shubman Gill who scored 63 runs off just 36 balls with six fours and three sixes. All-rounder Vijay Shankar and Sudarshan also played notable knocks. Afghanistan skipper played only three balls in his innings and he scored unbeaten 10 runs in that.

For the Chennai franchise the pick of the bowler was young Rajvardhan Hangargekar who was playing his first match for the franchise. He bagged three wickets in his spell of four overs and conceded 36 runs in his spell of four overs. One wicket each was taken by Deshpande and Ravindra Jadeja.

Here’s how fans reacted on Jio Cinema touching 50 Crore viewers: