Ahmedabad

Sanju Samson's and Shimron Hetmyer's explosive knocks allowed Rajasthan Royals to make a terrific comeback and win the game by three wickets against Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday.

While defending a target of 178, Gujarat Titans had the best possible start in the second innings as skipper Hardik Pandya and Mohammed Shami dismissed the deadly duo of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler were back in the pavilion with the scores of 1(7) and 0 (5) respectively.

Devdutt Padikkal and Sanju Samson came in to steady the sinking ship of the Rajasthan's innings. At the end of the powerplay, Rajasthan were 26/2.

Sanju Samson started to accelerate from one side while Padikkal focused on strike rotation. But Rashid Khan came in with his experience to break the partnership as Padikkal ended up losing his wicket for a score of 26 (25) in 8.3 overs.

Riyan Parag came in to support Sanju but Rashid Khan wasn't in the mood to allow Rajasthan a chance to make a comeback. Parag went back to the pavilion with a score of 5 (7).

Rajasthan's skipper still went on to play according to his own will and made GT bowlers dance to his tune. Shimron Hetmyer and Sanju Samson brought Rajasthan back into the game.

GT skipper Hardik Pandya gambled and brought Noor Ahmad into the attack. Noor broke through the partnership and dismissed Samson for a score of 60 (32). As Samson walked back to the pavilion, Rajasthan was already on the brink of making an unexpected comeback.

Hetmeyer didn't fail to capitalize on the window of opportunity that opened in front of him. He went on a rampage and scored sixes according to his own will.

The match came close to its end and Shami's over became the defining moment of the game. Shami ended up conceding 16 runs in the last over but got two crucial wickets from Dhruv Jurel and Ravichandran Ashwin for scores of 18 (10) and 10(3) respectively.

Hardik gambled once again and gave the ball to Noor Ahmed to defend 7 runs in 6 balls. Hetmeyer ran for two on the first ball and scored a six to win the game for Rajasthan Royals in a dramatic fashion. He ended the match with an unbeaten knock of 56(26)*.

Earlier in the game for GT, Gill scored 45 off 34 and Miller smashed 46 runs while Manohar played a quickfire knock of 27 runs in 17 balls. For RR, Sandeep Sharma bagged two while Trent Boult, Adam Zampa and Yuzvendra Chahal scalped one wicket each.

Opted to bowl first Royals got off to a flying start as Trent Boult dismissed opener Wriddhiman Saha on the third delivery of the opening over.

Opener Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan then handled the charge as they slammed Boult for 13 runs. Sudharsan then fell prey to run out as he tried to take a run in the 5th over of the innings.

Gujarat captain Hardik Pandya then came out to bat. The Gujarat batters rotated the strike brilliantly, not allowing the Rajasthan bowlers to settle down while whacking the loose balls on offer.

Pandya slammed Adam Zampa for 13 runs with the help of one four and six in the 7th over of the innings. Pandya and Gill both were aggressors of the batting pair, smashing boundaries regularly. The duo stitched a solid 50-run partnership for their team.

Gujarat were banking on Gill and Pandya's partnership to post a dominating target, however, the solid stand between the batters was broken as Yuzvendra Chahal provided his team with a great breakthrough. Chahal dismissed well-set batter Pandya for 28 in the 11th over of the innings. David Miller then came out to bat.

Rajasthan bowlers then started to grasp a strong hold on Gujarat batters as they delivered economical spells restricting Titans from scoring boundaries. Gill's superb knock of 45 runs came to an end as he was sent packing by Sandeep Sharma in the 16th over.

The right-handed batter Abhinav Manohar came out to bat to join hands with Miller and slammed Boult for back-to-back two sixes, taking Gujarat's total beyond 150 runs in the 18th over of the game.

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Manohar slammed a six off Zampa's delivery before losing his wicket after scoring 27. In the last over, Miller slammed back-to-back two boundaries before handing a catch to Hetmyer off Sandeep Sharma's delivery. Sandeep delivered a stunning last over to help RR restrict Gujarat to 177/7 in 20 overs.