'You will get a tight slap from cricket': Sehwag SLAMS Shubman Gill after GT's close win over PBKS in IPL 2023

Gujarat Titans (GT) returned to winning ways in IPL 2023 edition on Thursday evening (April 13). Locking horns with Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Mohali, GT restricted Shikhar Dhawan & Co. to 153 for 8 and chased down the target in 19.5 overs with six wickets in hand. Although GT was on course to reach the target for most part of their run-chase, they were strechted by all means by the Punjab bowlers as the defending champions managed to edge past them on the penultimate ball of the contest.

Shubman Gill top-scored for GT, and overall, with a 49-ball 67 but could not remain unbeaten as Sam Curran rattled his stumps in the last over, with six required off the last four balls. While the in-form right-hander was at 35 off 22 balls, he took another 18 balls to reach the 50-run mark. Thus, he was criticised for being slow in the end overs, increasing the pressure and then succumbing to it in the final over. Eventually, Rahul Tewatia's timely hit (5 not out off 2 balls) sealed the deal for GT but former cricketer Virender Sehwag has slammed Gill's approach.

Sehwag said on Cricbuzz, "He scored 67 off 49 balls but when did he reach his fiifty? He reached his fifty off maybe 41-42 balls so in 7-8 balls he has scored 17 more runs. The accelration came there, after he had reached his fifty. If even that had not happened then GT would have chasing maybe 17 instead off 7 in the last over."

He further added, "You can't think let me score a fifty and we will anyway win the match. This is cricket. The moment you think about your own performance (instead of the team), you will get a tight slap from cricket. You can't think like that. If he had showed the same intent and played at close to a strike rate of 200 when he was nearing fifty then he could have reached his milestone a lot earlier and save more deliveries for his team."

Gill, too, spoke about his innings and said in the after the game, "It got slower with the old ball. So we needed to get off to a good start in the powerplay. We lost a bit of momentum when Hardik bhai got out. It wasn't a big score but it was important to rotate the strike and not have dot balls."

At the post-match presentation, Hardik Pandya stated, "To be very honest I would not appreciate for the game to go this deep. There was definitely a lot for us to learn from this game... It would have been a tough pill to swallow if the game had gone the other side. I would like to finish the game earlier, not a big fan of taking it to the last over."

Hardik Pandya & Co. occupy the third spot in the points table following their close win over Punjab, with three victories from four outings.