Kamal Ghorui
Shubman Gill pointed to Gujarat Titans’ inability to close out key phases in the middle overs and also touched on his opening partnership after GT’s five-wicket loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in IPL 2026 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday.“Definitely. From the 16th to the 19th, (17th to 19th) those three overs, we couldn’t get any boundaries. Those overs were crucial for us. At the end of the Power-play, we were in a good situation. We needed to take wickets,” he said. “I mean, when a batsman gets dropped on nought, it’s always tough on the fielder. But it’s about how you come back in the game. We had our moments. But we weren’t able to hit the right lengths consistently, which was important. But they batted very well in the middle overs.”The dropped catch he referred to gave Virat Kohli a chance, and the RCB batter made full use of it with 81 off 44 balls.Alongside Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal scored 55 off 27 balls, and the two added a strong partnership through the middle overs to keep RCB ahead in the chase.Gill said there was some help in the surface, especially for Krunal Pandya. “When we were batting, the balls that Krunal bowled, it was gripping a bit. I thought if we could get a few wickets, we would come back in the game.”GT had earlier posted 205/3, with Sai Sudharsan scoring 100 off 58 balls and becoming the fastest to reach 2000 IPL runs. Gill and Jos Buttler also contributed to the total.In the chase, GT had a brief fightback when Rashid Khan and Manav Suthar dismissed Jitesh Sharma and Rajat Patidar in quick succession, but Krunal Pandya’s unbeaten 23 off 12 balls, including a strong 18th over, sealed the game for RCB.Gill also spoke about his opening partnership and said: “He (Sudharsan) was quite upset with the way he got out in the previous game. But in the upcoming games, hopefully, he gives me some more strike in the Power-play.”Sudharsan faced most of the balls in the powerplay, playing 29 deliveries, while Gill faced only seven at the top of the order.
