Ahmedabad: Suryansh Shedge made a 57 of rare quality, but the storm kicked up by pacers Mohammed Siraj, Jason Holder and Kagiso Rabada was enough for the Gujarat Titans to restrict the Punjab Kings to a modest 163 for nine in their IPL match Sunday.
But even that total looked distant once Siraj (2/28) and Holder (4/24) reduced Punjab to 47 for five in 8.4 overs.
However, Shedge’s 29-ball innings, instrumental in a 79-run alliance for the sixth wicket with Marcus Stoinis (40) helped Punjab to recover from that precarious place to some extent.
Shedge, who often does the firefighting job for Mumbai in domestic cricket, used that experience here for Punjab.
The right-hander never looked to force the shots and accepted the superiority of GT bowlers on this pitch and the lines they bowled.
But he was not reluctant to flex his muscles when the opportunity presented itself, such as the 14th over bowled by Manav Suthar.
Shedge hammered him for 6, 6, 4, 4, 6 to take 26 runs from that over and fetched his fifty in just 24 balls.
But he did not last long after that, edging Rabada (2/22) to Jos Buttler behind the stumps, as PBKS lost their way once again.
Earlier, Siraj, who has been outstanding throughout this tournament, started the Titans’ slide early, dismissing Priyansh Arya and Cooper Connolly off successive balls in the very first over.
Arya cut Siraj straight to GT debutant Nishant Sandhu in the deep, while Connolly snicked one back to Buttler.
Prabhsimran Singh could not negate Rabada’s 152 kmph rocket and scooped it to Suthar inside the circle.
Holder took over from there, giving marching orders to Nehal Wadhera and PBKS skipper Shreyas Iyer, excellent examples of his stifling line.
Wadhera edged one to stumper Buttler, and Shreyas did not have enough space to guide it to third man, and chopped Holder back onto his stumps as PBKS fell into complete disarray.
Marco Jansen made couple of beefy blows in the final over off Rashid Khan to take them past the 160-run mark, but it will take some defending from PBKS, whose bowling department has been a bit underwhelming the whole season.
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