Kamal Ghorui
Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill admitted he could have introduced Prasidh Krishna earlier with the ball, after Punjab Kings chased down the target to win by three wickets in their first IPL match on Tuesday.“I could have got Prasidh on earlier, but we were in the game until the end, there will always be ifs and buts. But he came at the right time, took wickets and kept us in the game until the 17th and 18th over,” Gill said after the match.Punjab Kings were guided by Cooper Connolly, who scored 72 off 44 balls on debut, helping his side chase 163 with five balls remaining. Prabhsimran Singh made 37 off 24 balls, and the two added 76 runs for the second wicket.Earlier, Yuzvendra Chahal picked up 2/28 in four overs to control the middle phase, while Vijaykumar Vyshak took 3/34 as Gujarat Titans were held to 162/6.For Gujarat Titans, Gill scored 39 off 27 balls and Jos Buttler made 38 off 33.Punjab Kings had an early setback when Kagiso Rabada dismissed Priyansh Arya, with debutant Ashok Sharma taking the catch at midwicket.Connolly and Prabhsimran then put the innings back on track. Rashid Khan later dismissed Prabhsimran, who was caught at long-on.Shreyas Iyer hit two sixes off Ashok Kumar but was dismissed soon after, flicking a delivery from Prasidh Krishna to Washington Sundar at deep midwicket.Sundar also removed Nehal Wadhera, while Krishna took the wickets of Shashank Singh and Marcus Stoinis in quick succession to bring Gujarat Titans back into the match.Krishna was brought into the attack in the 13th over when Punjab needed 53 runs from 48 balls, and he dismissed Iyer off his first delivery.Despite the wickets, Connolly stayed till the end, hitting five sixes and five fours to take Punjab Kings home.“I think we bowled pretty well, we didn’t get going in the last five or six overs (with the bat), it wasn’t a 200 wicket, but if we had 175 it would have been different, but we kept losing wickets and we couldn’t get going in the last five overs,” Gill added.
