Opener Shubman Gill, who slammed an unbeaten 94 for Gujarat Titans and put on 142 runs off 74 balls for the opening stand with Wriddhiman Saha, praised his 'phenomenal' opening partner for scoring 81 off 43 balls and setting the foundation for a 56-run win over Lucknow Super Giants.
"He is such a phenomenal guy. Looking at the way he keeps, he bats; it's just great to see someone putting in so much effort for the team, day in and day out. This was just the result of the hard work that he has been putting in," said Gill in a video posted by the franchise on Monday.
While Gill hit seven sixes and two fours, Saha smashed 10 fours and four sixes in taking Lucknow's bowlers to cleaners. "I think the intent was always there. It was only coming together at the right moment."
"With the kind of batting line-up that we have and the kind of practices and process that we've been going through, this kind of performance was just around the corner," added Gill on the stunning performance from the opening pair helping Gujarat post 227/2.
Though Lucknow raised to 72/0 in powerplay, they soon ran out of steam in the face of a high required run-rate and ended up at 171/7, with pacer Mohit Sharma taking 4/29 in his four overs."Our bowlers were a bit under pressure, with the power-play that they had. Coming back the way we did was just great.
It was definitely a great win for us. We've been playing our best cricket in the past three or four matches in batting and bowling," concluded Gill.Now on top of the points table with 16 points from 11 games, Gujarat's next match in IPL 2023 will be against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday.