Gujarat Titans (GT) earned the top spot on the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 points table with another statement performance to make it four victories on the trot. An all-round batting effort, once again led by Sai Sudharsan, followed by another high-caliber outing in the field, gave the Shubman Gill-led team a 58-run victory over Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Match 23 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Player-of-the-match Sudharsan's 82(53), combined with effective cameos from Jos Buttler and Shahrukh Khan, among others, propelled GT to 217/6 in 20 overs. Each of the six bowlers Gill used were then among the wickets, with Prasidh Krishna (3-24) leading the defense, as the home side bowled out RR for 159.

🔝 of their Game. 🔝 of the Table. 💙#GT roar to the top of the points table with another strong display of cricket 💪

Scorecard ▶ https://t.co/raxxjzYH5F#TATAIPL | #GTvRR | @gujarat_titans pic.twitter.com/ZDRsDqoMAT

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 9, 2025

After RR skipper Sanju Samson asked his team to bowl first, pacer Jofra Archer was on target right away. In a fiery opening spell of two overs, Archer breached the 150 kmph barrier on a couple of occasions, bowled a fierce bouncer to countryman Jos Buttler, and rattled GT captain Shubman Gill’s stumps with a 147.7 kmph delivery.

After navigating Archer early on, the highly consistent Sai Sudharsan continued to make merry this season. Sudharsan changed gears with a six and two fours off Tushar Deshpande in the fifth over and raced to 39*(22) as GT ended the powerplay at 56/1.

Jos Buttler also joined the party with a flurry of boundaries against his former team. Sudharsan brought up his third fifty of the season off 32 deliveries, before the 80-run stand ended after a successful review from RR as Maheesh Theekshana trapped Buttler (36 off 25) in front later in the over, and GT were 94/2 after 10 overs.

While Sudharsan kept going, Shahrukh Khan took over from Buttler with a power-packed 36(20) and GT rocketed to 163/3 after 16 overs.

 

 

 

 

 

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Sandeep Sharma dismissed the heavy-hitting and in-form Sherfane Rutherford out early (7 off 3). But GT were in no mood stop. 54 runs came off just the last four overs, led by Sudharsan’s highly impressive 82(53) and cameos from Rahul Tewatia (24 off 12) and Rashid Khan (12 off 4), as GT ended with a mighty 217/6.

No-look shot from Rashid but Jaiswal saw that coming 🦅

🎥 Yashasvi Jaiswal pulls off a blinder to cut short Rashid Khan's cameo 🩷

Updates ▶ https://t.co/raxxjzY9g7#TATAIPL | #GTvRR | @ybj_19 pic.twitter.com/VwRusWXkX0

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 9, 2025

There was no shortage of excitement in the start to RR’s chase. Arshad Khan and Mohd. Siraj - the leading wicket-taker in the powerplay so far this season - struck early to send back Yashasvi Jaiswal and Nitish Rana to leave RR at 12/2.

A powerful counter-punch from captain Sanju Samson and vice-captain Riyan Parag followed, including a couple of stylish shots for six, and RR charged forward to 57/2 after 6 overs. However, they lost a couple of quick wickets at the wrong time with Parag (26 off 14) and Dhruv Jurel (5) walking back and RR were 85/4 at the 10-over mark, needing 133 more runs.

Another flourishing partnership, between Samson and Shimron Hetmyer this time, ended with Samson (41 off 28) skewing one to short third-man off Prasidh Krishna before Rashid Khan bagged a second wicket to leave RR at 127/6, needing 91 from six overs. The required rate kept cropping up and wickets kept falling, with Hetmyer (52 off 32) putting up a lone fight.

 

 

 

 

 

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Krishna's 3-24 and Rashid Khan's 2-37 led GT's bowling effort as they closed out the win with four deliveries remaining.

𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗵 😎

Twin strikes in the same over as he put #GT in touching distance to victory ✌️

Updates ▶ https://t.co/raxxjzYH5F#TATAIPL | #GTvRR | @prasidh43 pic.twitter.com/FKV82AiIIP

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 9, 2025

The full scorecard and full details of Match 23 can be found here.