"Shubman Gill, as a batsman and as a cricketer, is a good thinker": Kapoor

Gujarat Titans booked their place in the Playoffs with a commanding 10-wicket win over hosts Delhi Capitals here on Sunday. The chase was made to look easy by openers B Sai Sudharsan (108 not out off 61 balls) and skipper Shubman Gill (93 not out off 53), who stitched together an unbeaten 205-run stand to take GT home with six balls to spare.

GT are placed on top of the table with 18 points, while DC (13 points) are fifth.

Good leadership 

GT’s assistant coach Aashish Kapoor credited Gill’s leadership for his team’s golden run. “Shubman, as a batsman and as a cricketer, is a good thinker of his own batting. I have seen him since his U-16 days. He used to use his brain a lot more than the other boys of his age. That is one quality you need as a captain. Someone who can think for himself and for 10 others. The moment Hardik [Pandya] left, we could have always gone for a senior player as captain, but we took a chance with him,” said Kapoor. 

Gujarat Titans’s assistant coach Aashish Kapoor

Kapoor was upbeat about Gill’s batting form this season as compared to last year. The GT opener has scored 601 runs in 12 matches at an average of 60.10. “He is in better form this year and that’s helping both him and the team. That’s what’s important in the IPL — your top players must be in form and there should be less injuries in the team. In that way, we are lucky this year,” he said. 

Batting first, DC posted 199-3, thanks to an unbeaten 112 off 65 balls by opener KL Rahul.  DC’s No. 3 batter Abhishek Porel praised the GT openers for their brilliant chase. “They batted really well. In the first innings, the ball wasn’t coming on to the bat well, so we played carefully. Later on, the wicket eased up a lot. I thought, given the conditions, 200 was a good score, but they [GT openers] batted really well,” said Porel.

DC’s Porel hails GT openers

Despite the defeat, Porel was optimistic about DC’s chances of making it to the Playoffs with two matches remaining. “We have played good matches. In some games, we lost momentum and weren’t able to win those matches. But we have been playing good cricket. It’s not like we have played bad cricket. We still have two chances to make it to the Playoffs,” said Porel, who scored a 19-ball 30.

Three
No. of 100-plus run stands by skipper Shubman Gill and B Sai Sudharsan this season

This article first appeared on Mid Day