Gujarat Titans' (GT) Sai Sudharsan plays a shot during their IPL 2025 match against Rajasthan Royals (RR), at the Narendra Modi Stadium, in Ahmedabad, Wednesday, April 9. PTI
GT vs RR: Sudharsan's 82 powers Gujarat to 217/6
A third half-century of the IPL season for Sai Sudharsan. He hit eight boundaries and three sixes in his 53-ball knock
Left-handed opening batter Sai Sudharsan continued his rich vein of form as he hit a half-century to power Gujarat Titans (GT) to 217 for six against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in their IPL 2025 contest in Ahmedabad on Wednesday (April 9).
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Sudharsan was in sublime touch, timing everything to perfection. He hit eight boundaries and three sixes in his 53-ball 82 for his third fifty of the season.
Archer shines
After leaking plenty of runs initially in the IPL, Jofra Archer (1/30) is well and truly back to his best. With the new ball in hand, he cranked it up to 152.3 kph in his first over, then returned in his second to clean up Shubman Gill (2) with a steaming 147.7 kph inswinger that beat the inside edge and crashed into Gill's off stump.
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Archer then greeted Jos Buttler (36) with a sharp bouncer, but the former England captain responded a couple of balls later with a crisp four to the deep-cover boundary.
With Sudharsan taking charge, Buttler joined the party with back-to-back boundaries off Fazalhaq Farooqi (0/38) in the seventh over.
In the next over, he sliced Maheesh Theekshana (2/54) through the offside for a four, before lofting him straight down the ground for another boundary.
Theekshana gets Buttler
But Theekshana had the last laugh, trapping Buttler leg-before, ending an 80-run partnership.
Rajasthan skipper Sanju Samson immediately turned back to Archer in a bid to stem the flow of runs, and the Barbados-born pacer repaid the faith with a tight over that went for just six.
But Shahrukh Khan (36 off 20) exploded into action in the very next over, slamming consecutive boundaries before muscling one over deep extra cover to inject some much-needed momentum into the GT innings.
The boundaries kept coming as Shahrukh went after Theekshana in the 14th over that yielded 16 runs.
Royals responded by striking twice in quick succession, removing Shahrukh and Sherfane Rutherford (7) to pull things back.
Sudharsan was handed a life on 81 but couldn’t make much of the reprieve, as Tushar Deshpande induced a thin edge to send him back into the dugout.