The Gujarat Titans (GT) couldn’t have had a better start with the ball against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their IPL 2024 match. During the chase, the visitors lost Ajinkya Rahane and Rahcin Ravindra to successive deliveries in Ahmedabad on Friday (May 10).
Rahane tapped Umesh Yadav’s delivery narrowly behind the stumps on the penultimate ball of the first over, prompting Rachin to sprint for a fast single. However, David Miller charged from short point and made a fast one-handed pick-up and throw to the striker’s end. Replays revealed that the southpaw fell agonizingly short of the crease.
The very next delivery, Ajinkya Rahane opted to flick Sandeep Warrier to mid-wicket. But he could only get a leading edge, and Rahul Tewatia made an outstanding grab at mid-off. Here is a video of both dismissals.
CSK would have carried some momentum into the second innings after preventing GT from scoring 240 runs. However, the second blow seemed to have neutralized the visitors’ limited impetus.
CSK need to consolidate after losing skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad
Things went from bad to worse for CSK when they lost skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad for a duck. Gaikwad took a short delivery from Umesh Yadav and may have thought he had enough on it to send it past Rashid Khan at deep square leg.
Despite being off balance, GT bowler Rashid lobbed the ball into the air, avoided touching the boundary line, and made a fantastic catch. With the scoreboard showing 10/3, Gujarat swept through Chennai like a rash.
Daryl Mitchell and Moeen Ali have since began to counter-attack, and Chennai had scored 43/3 at the end of the powerplay. GT are still comfortably up in the game, but IPL 2024 has demonstrated that no total is secure if there is a strong partnership.