New Delhi (India) May 1: Gujarat Titans (GT) beat the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and won the match by four wickets in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

RCB Collapse Amid Bowling Pressure

Gujarat bowled first after winning the toss, and stopped the opponents at 155 in 19.1 overs. Virat Kohli took 5 boundaries off one over but was bowled in his next delivery. The middle order continued to fall apart for RCB, who lost wickets at an astonishing clip. RCB scored just 155 off 19.2 overs.

GT Captain Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler both played an impressive yet short innings against RCB. Bhuvneshwar Kumar kept RCB in the chase for a while. He took three wickets and slowed the scoring temporarily. Romario Shepherd’s spells added two more but was not enough to win RCB the game. Rahul Tewatia smashed his way and made Gujarat Titans win the game by four wickets.

Controversy Erupts Over Rajat Patidar’s Dismissal

Before being caught in the deep square leg, Rajat Patidar had been in a partnership of 44 runs with Devdutt Padikkal for the third wicket when Holder bowled the RCB captain in the eighth over. But, slow-motion replays revealed that perhaps Holder had grassed the ball one too many times. 

The TV umpire Abhijit Bhattacharya could have thought Holder had control and bowled Patidar out. Several RCB players were furious with Holder making gestures as if he had dropped the ball and Kohli appeared to argue with the reserve umpire Parashar Joshi. RCB coach Andy Flower was later caught in an argument with the reserve umpire too.

Gill Credits Fielding and Team Effort

Shubman Gill, GT captain said, "Feels very satisfying, you know, on a wicket like this, restricting a team like them under 160 was a tremendous job by the bowlers. (reason for the win tonight?) I think our fielding was one of the things, it's something I think at phases, we haven't fielded that well in the game. And I think today was one of those days, everyone came together. The energy in the field was very, very nice, especially after the second over, Virat bhai hit us for some runs and how we all came back together. That was very crucial for us" regarding the win.

Playing Xl's: GT AND RCB

GUJARAT TITANS: Shubman Gill (c), Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler (wk), Washington Sundar, Jason Holder, Shahrukh Khan, Arshad Khan, Rashid Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Manav Suthar, Mohammed Siraj

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE: Virat Kohli, Jacob Bethell, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (c), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Suyash Sharma, Josh Hazlewood