Ahmedabad: Punjab Kings came up with a fine all-round performance to start their campaign in the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) season with an 11-run victory over Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium here.
Punjab captain Shreyas Iyer’s unbeaten 97 alongside valuable contributions by Priyansh Arya and Shashank Singh helped the visitors post a massive total of 243/5 in 20 overs after being asked to bat first by Gujarat Titans. In the chase of 244, skipper Shubman Gill and Sai Sudarshan started precariously in the opening exchanges against the dangerous bowling attack of Arshdeep Singh and Azmatullah Omarzai before the former shifted gears in an attempt to keep up with the ever-rising required run-rate.
After not contributing any runs to the scoreboard, Glenn Maxwell, on the night he overtook Dinesh Karthik for most ducks in IPL history, struck first blood with the ball in the final over of the power-play when he found Gill’s edge, which ballooned over to cover point.
In came Jos Buttler, on his debut for Gujarat Titans after having played for the Rajasthan Royals for the past seven seasons, and took his time and navigated through the middle overs, letting the set batter Sudharsan take the fight to the Gujarat bowlers. After having a relatively slower start on the night, Sudharsan switched gears after scoring his seventh IPL fifty in 31 deliveries. The opening batter began accelerating and reached 74 runs, in an innings laced with five boundaries and six sixes, before falling victim to Arshdeep.
Gujarat decided it was time to send in their Impact Player, Sherfane Rutherford, who announced his arrival in style by smashing two sixes and a four off Marcus Stoinis. With 70 runs required off 30 deliveries, Punjab’s death bowling shone on the night, with only 12 runs coming off the next two overs. Buttler, after reaching his 20th half-century, was dismissed by Marco Jansen, bringing Rahul Tewatia to the crease with a mountain of a task ahead of him.
In the end, it was a case of too many runs left with not enough balls left for a late rampage. Tewatia was dismissed on the first delivery when he left the crease, and Rutherford’s straight shot deviated onto the wickets. Arshdeep castled the West Indies batter to call curtains on the victory.
