After Gujarat Titans nearly botched their 154-run pursuit against Punjab Kings, former India opener Virender Sehwag took Shubman Gill to task harshly. When Wriddhiman Saha, Shubman Gill’s opening partner, was dismissed for a lightning-quick 30 off 19 balls in the powerplay, Shubman Gill was 17 off 9 balls.
Despite playing through the Gujarat Titans’ chase’s final over, Gill’s strike rate of nearly 200 was the highest he would ever achieve. In the second ball of the last over, GT still needed 6 runs to win when he was clean-bowled while attempting a desperate heave across the line against Sam Curran.
The GT captain Hardik Pandya said it would have been a “bitter pill” for the defending champions to swallow if it weren’t for a Rahul Tewatia lap over a short fine leg.
Former India starting pitcher Virender Sehwag brought up Gill’s strike rate following the powerplay and advised him to stop thinking about personal milestones and instead begin treating the game in accordance with the circumstances.
Shubman Gill has been in a sublime form
He reached his fifty off maybe 41 or 42 balls, so he has scored 17 more runs in the next 7 or 8 balls,” the commentator said.
Cricket will give you a hard slap if you ever consider your own performance. He could have reached his milestone much sooner and saved more deliveries for his team if he had played with the same intent and close to a strike rate of 200 when he was approaching fifty, according to Sehwag.
Gill concurred that he should have continued to play until the end of the game to win. “With the old ball, it became slower. In the powerplay, we, therefore, needed to start strong.”
“Hardik bhai leaving caused us to lose some of our momenta. Although the score wasn’t high, he said that it was crucial to rotate the strike and avoid balls.”
It was also clear from Hardik Pandya’s words during the post-game presentation that he was disappointed. Honestly, I wouldn’t have liked for the game to go this far.
“There was undoubtedly much that we could have learned from this game. If the game had ended differently, it would have been a hard pill to swallow. I don’t like letting it go to the last over, so I would like to end the game sooner,” he said.
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