Spot-on RCB bowlers limit Gujarat Titans to below-par 147

Bengaluru: Gujarat Titans, preyed on by a sporting pitch, accurate Royal Challengers Bengaluru bowlers and their own inhibitions, laboured to a modest 147 all out in the Indian Premier League match here on Saturday.

There were a couple of good partnerships – 61 between David Miller and Shahrukh Khan and 44 by Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan – but the Titans lacked that one big innings or a stand that could have given them a firmer grip on the match.

In fact, they seemed distinctly incapable of accelerating even in the Power Play as their top-order batters struggled against RCB pacers, Mohammed Siraj (2/29) and Yash Dayal (2/21) who stuck to a wonderful length on a pitch that offered good carry and bounce.

That GT managed to strike just two fours in the Power Play segment offered ample evidence to their struggle and RCB bowlers’ accuracy.

The Gujarat side’s Power Play score of 23 for three was the lowest in the segment this season, and it was mainly due to Siraj’s domination upfront.

Coming off a short-break, the pacer looked a far improved version of himself after the struggles of initial stages where he sprayed the ball all around.

He consumed Wriddhiman Saha with a fine outswinger which the GT opener wafted to Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps.

Shubman Gill followed soon as his attempted swat to the on-side of Siraj took a leading edge and ended in the hands of Vysakh Vijayakumar at deep point.

Cameron Green fetched the third wicket for RCB in the Power Play when he jettisoned in-form B Sai Sudharsan, whose feeble pull close to the body was snaffled by Virat Kohli at mid-off.

Once their top two run-getters of the season walked back to the dugout, the rest of the batters needed to step up big time for GT to reach a competitive total.

Miller (30, 20b) and Shahrukh (37, 24b) tried their best to drag GT out of the woods with a well-paced 61-run alliance off 37 balls for the fourth wicket.

Miller was even fortunate to get dropped on 23 off Green by Karn Sharma near square leg, did play some archetypal power shots.

He punished leg-spinner Karn for a couple of sixes – a pull and a loft over extra cover – but fell to the same bowler when a miscued heave was grabbed by Glenn Maxwell at deep.

But a bigger misfortune was in store for the visitors as Shahrukh, who backed up a tad too far to Rahul Tewatia’s soft drop, could not beat a throw from Kohli to the non-striker’s end.

For the sixth-wicket, Tewatia (35, 21b) and Rashid (18, 14b) added 44 off 29 balls, but the latter’s desire to be innovative against Yash Dayal saw the ball crashing onto the stumps.

Tewatia, who punished Karn for 18 runs (4, 6, 4, 4) in the 16th over, too perished soon as GT limped to a below-par total.