Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Gujarat Titans skipper Shubman Gill wore a satisfied smile after leading his side to a thrilling five-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders in their IPL 2026 clash at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Friday. While pleased with the result, Gill admitted his team would have preferred to finish the chase earlier.The victory marked GT’s third consecutive win this season, following triumphs over Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants. With six points from five matches, the Titans have climbed to fourth on the table. In contrast, KKR’s struggles continued, as they remain winless with just one point, rooted to the bottom.“Honestly, I don’t think it matters. The only thing that matters is the win and obviously, playing the final and winning the cup would be something that I’m looking forward for. (after you got out, did you think it’s taking longer than you wanted?) Yeah, ideally we would have liked to finish at least an over, couple of overs before and I was quite disappointed with the way I got out. I wanted to be there till the end and finish it. Hopefully, the next chance I get, I would be able to do that,” Gill said.“(on bowling Siraj and Rabada 3 on the trot early) Honestly, the way both of them were bowling was, it looked like they could get a wicket on every ball and giving both of them one extra over in the end, I could see the ball was nipping a little bit, so it was a decision, I asked both of them if they are ready to bowl one more because, it’s a little bit hot, so it’s not easy to bowl three overs on the trot,” Gill added.Gill led from the front with a magnificent 86 off 50 balls, striking eight fours and four sixes as GT chased down 181 in 19.4 overs.“(on his batting) Yeah, definitely. I think fitness was something, I got a couple of months before this. And fitness was one thing that I worked on. And apart from that, just working on the mental aspect of the game and trying to get better, not just technically, but tactically as well. (how do you get better technically and mentally?) It’s all about, try to stay in the present, not try to think too far ahead or look into your past mistakes. Obviously, you want to learn from them, but you don’t want to dwell on them. And that is something that, it’s a conscious decision every time, you go to bat or you go in the field, your mind takes you to all sorts of places, but it’s important to stay present,” he said.
