The first game of the 16th season of the Indian Premier League was a banger, with Gujarat Titans beating Chennai Super Kings by 5 wickets. A lot of action happened during the game as Rashid Khan and Rahul Tewatia clinched the game from Chennai’s jaws. However, earlier today, Gujrat’s captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and invited Chennai Super Kings to bat first.
Ruturaj goes big
Having been called into bat first, Chennai’s Ruturaj Gaikwad took charge for his team and started hitting from the second over. However, his partner, Conway couldn’t do much and departed cheaply. Wickets kept tumbling from the other end but Ruturaj didn’t let this affect his strokeplay.
Ruturaj finished his innings at 92 runs from 50 balls with 4 fours and 9 sixes before being removed by Alzarri Joseph. Star all-rounder Ben Stokes disappointed fans in the first game as he could only manage 7 runs in 6 balls. Nonetheless, CSK’s captain MS Dhoni gave the fans a show as he scored 14 runs in 7 balls with a six and a four. CSK ended up with 178 runs in their 20 overs for the loss of 7 wickets.
Rashid the savior
Coming in to chase, Gujarat’s openers Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha gave the team a decent start as the duo put up 37 runs in just under 4 overs before Wriddhiman Saha was removed by the debutant Rajvardhan Hangargekar. Gill looked impressive in his innings of 63 runs today which came in just 36 balls. Many people have earlier accused the stylish opener of being slow but this inning was a testament to his aggression and strokeplay.
However, with regular wickets falling, it seemed at one point that the match would go in the favor of the Chennai Super Kings, but Rashid Khan had other plans. When Rashid came out to bat, CSK needed 23 runs to win from 2 overs. When he took guard, in just a span of 2 balls, Rashid changed the course of the game. Rashid whipped a six and four off consecutive deliveries from Deepak Chahar, meaning that Gujarat just needed 8 runs to win off the final over. Rahul Tewatia hit a six and a four off the first two deliveries off the final over by Tushar Deshpande to steer Gujarat home. Debutant Rajvardhan Hangargerkar looked impressive for Chennai as he picked 3 wickets for 36 runs from his 4 overs.
Here’s the updated points table after GT vs CSK Match 1:
| Rank | Teams | Matches | Won | Lost | No Results | Points | NRR |
| 1 | Gujarat Titans | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | +0514 |
| 2 | Delhi Capitals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| 3 | Kolkata Knight Riders | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| 4 | Lucknow Super Giants | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| 5 | Mumbai Indians | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| 6 | Punjab Kings | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| 7 | Rajasthan Royals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| 8 | Royal Challengers Bangalore | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| 9 | Sunrisers Hyderabad | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| 10 | Chennai Super Kings | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -0.514 |
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