On Friday, the Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan and the rookie spinner Noor Ahmad helped the Gujarat Titans cruise to an easy nine-wicket victory against the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Rajasthan’s captain Sanju Samson sent his team in to bat first. In the 18th over of their innings, Khan and Ahmad combined to take five wickets, which resulted to Rajasthan being bowled out for just 118 runs. Both of the Royals’ openers, England’s Jos Buttler (eight) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (14), were dismissed before the sixth over as their team was rocked early on.
Samson, who smashed a fluent 30 off 20 balls, was their leading scorer, and when he was out in the seventh over, Rajasthan was left reeling at 60-3. Khan finished his four-over performance with a brilliant 3-14 after taking three wickets and removing Ravichandran Ashwin (two), Riyan Parag (four), and West Indian Shimron Hetmyer (seven). In total, Khan removed seven batters.
He was ably assisted by 18-year-old wrist spinner Ahmad, who finished with 2-25 in three overs. He removed Devdutt Padikkal (12) and Dhruv Jurel (nine).
“I entrusted Rashid with the responsibility of negotiating terms with the spinners and with Noor. They both speak Pashtun, which is the same language, and nobody is better than Rashid, claimed the captain of the Gujarat team, Hardik Pandya.
Khan has taken a total of 18 wickets in the competition so far this year, and he has acknowledged that he is relieved to be back in form after going wicketless for 54 runs when playing against Kolkata a week ago.
“Today was a really difficult day for me. The renowned leg spinner admitted that he had bowled a few poor deliveries, which resulted in the team being penalized. “I just got back from there and had a conversation with the video analyst. I gave it a somewhat more aggressive pitch.”
Before being bowled out by Mohammed Shami, New Zealand bowler Trent Boult, who had scored 15 runs for Rajasthan, was the team’s second-highest scorer. Between them, India’s Shami and Ireland’s Josh Little shared eight tense overs and were responsible for two wickets.
Following the dismissal of Gujarat opener Shubman Gill for 36 by leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal in the tenth over, Gujarat captain Hardik Pandya smashed an explosive 39 not out off only 15 balls, including three sixes, to finish the game in the fourteenth over.
Wriddhiman Saha, who opened the innings, was also undefeated with 41 runs scored. With this victory, the defending IPL champion Gujarat Titans moved three points clear atop the standings following the league’s first ten matches. Samson stated that fourth-placed Rajasthan will “have to pull our socks up” in response to the “tough night” that had just occurred.