Gujarat Titans (GT) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) turned out to be the winners in the two clashes that took place in the Saturday double-header of Indian Premier League (IPL 2023). Co-incidentally, both were away wins. In the first game , GT beat hosts Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) a Eden Gardens by seven wickets while SRH made short work of Delhi Capitals (DC) at Feroz Shah Kotla ground. GT, as a result have jumped to the top of points table while there is a slight improvement for SRH in the standings as they registered their third win of the season.
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Titans gift Ashish Nehra a win on his birthday
Gujarat Titans coach Ashish Nehra turned 44 on Saturday and his team gave him a perfect birthday gift by going to the top of the table in IPL 2023. The fact that the win was hard-earned and found two new match winners in Vijay Shankar and David Miller must have made Nehra even happier. After restricting KKR to 179 for 7 in 20 overs, courtesy three wickets from Mohammed Shami, GT chased down the target in 17.5 overs with 7 wickets in hand.
A convincing win _ A perfect gift for Nehraji's birthday! _
Our Titans capped off a superb day with a heartwarming celebration! _#AavaDe #KKRvGT pic.twitter.com/vMtEwDXMu5
— Gujarat Titans (@gujarat_titans) April 29, 2023
After Wriddhiman Saha (10) went back early, Shubman Gill played a gritty knock of 49 runs to steady the ship. Hardik anchored the innings with a 20-ball 26. But when both fell, GT required a strong partnership to ge them going as the target was still far. Shankar and Miller them got together to stitch a match-winning stand for the fourth wicket and guided the team to a brilliant win.
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SRH beat DC in return fixture
The chances of Delhi Capitals qualifying for the playoffs received another blow with the loss against SRH. The DC camp had much to think about at the end of the season as the side displayed another bit of poor cricket. Winning the toss, SRH posted 197 for 6 in 20 overs all thanks to 67 by Abhishek Sharma. The maiden IPL fifty from Heinrich Klaasen helped the cause too.
DC never looked comfortable in the chase. They kept losing wickets at regular interval. Mitchell Marsh's 39-ball 63 went in vain as DC fell short by 9 runs in the end.
IPL 2023 Updated Points Table
As told earlier, Titans are now at the top of the points table with 6 wins from 8 games. They have a healthy strike rate of 0.638 and Rajasthan Royals (RR) are behind them with 5 wins from same number of matches. Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) are third and Chennai Super Kings are fourth in the standings. Sunrisers have gained one spot after win over DC and sit at eighth spot in the table now.
Orange Cap and Purple Cap leaders: RCB's Faf du Plessis and Mohammed Siraj continued to lead the charts in Orange Cap and Purple cap lists respectively. Du Plessis 422 runs in 8 matches while Siraj has picked 14 wickets in same number of games.
