Aakash Chopra pointed out that the Gujarat Titans (GT) faced challenges due to their sluggish start. This hampered their final score when they lost against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the IPL 2024 match.
GT set a target of 201 runs for RCB in Ahmedabad on Sunday, April 28th. RCB chased down the target easily, winning by nine wickets with four overs remaining, securing their third victory of the season.
In a video on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra said that GT’s below-average total was due to their struggles during the powerplay and death overs.
“They played extremely slow in the first six overs. It seemed at that stage that it was a very slow pitch, the ball wasn’t coming nicely onto the bat, but you still need to score runs. You have to run a little faster but the Gujarat team didn’t do that.”
“If you see Gujarat’s start and end, you see problems on both sides. They neither ran first at the start nor at the end. So even if you play decently in the middle, it isn’t enough.”
Aakash Chopra
The Titans team scored 24 runs and lost one wicket in the first three overs. However, in the next four overs, they could only make 23 more runs. Shubman Gill got out during this period. Despite having eight wickets remaining, the IPL 2022 champions managed to score only 75 runs in the final seven overs. David Miller, known for his hard-hitting, scored an unbeaten 26 runs off 19 balls.
“He is a 30-run bank” – Aakash Chopra on Gujarat Titans’ Sai Sudharsan
However, Aakash Chopra praised Sai Sudharsan for continuing his strong performance for the Gujarat Titans.
“Sai Sudharsan needs to be praised. He has become the second name for consistency. There is probably only one knock in this season where he hasn’t scored runs. He is a 30-run bank. He plays clean cricket and doesn’t try to hit the ball hard. I love this guy. He couldn’t score a century but it’s fine.”
Aakash Chopra
The cricketer-turned-commentator hailed Shahrukh Khan for demonstrating his devastating powers.
“Shahrukh Khan – he changed the direction of the winds. He came completely out of syllabus from RCB’s viewpoint. We had said that you should play Shahrukh. You had bought him at the auction but he was sitting outside. You were going towards Vijay Shankar and Abhinav Manohar, this kid is good, so try him at least, and when they did, he did an incredible job.”
Aakash Chopra
Shahrukh scored 58 runs off 30 deliveries, including three fours and five sixes. The Tamil Nadu right-hander and his statemate Sudharsan added 86 runs for the third wicket in only 7.3 overs after the Gujarat Titans were reduced to 45/2 following Shubman Gill’s dismissal.