Established pros continue to excel for resurgent Gujarat Titans

Back to back half-centuries from Jos Buttler and Shubman Gill, in the afterglow of a four-wicket haul from the pacy Prasidh Krishna, helped Gujarat Titans win their second successive game as they inflicted a seven-wicket defeat on Lucknow Super Giants on Sunday, April 12. Prasidh’s 4 for 28 ensured Lucknow Super Giants lost wickets at regular intervals to never mount a competitive total. Despite losing Sai Sudharsan early, Gill and Buttler combined to resurrect the chase, which the visitors completed with eight balls to spare. Having dropped their initial two games of the season, Gujarat Titans have returned to winning way in thumping fashion.

Buttler endured probably the roughest patch of his career recently. 87 runs in 8 T20 World Cup innings did not bode well with a showman of his caliber. Removed from the national sentiment, IPL brought an opportunity to rediscover his mojo and become the Buttler whose shoulder jiggle was an ominous precursor to a leather hunt.

The season gone by had seen him in that avatar – 538 runs in 14 matches, including a top score of 97*, at an average of 59.78 and a strike rate of 163. It is imperative for Gujarat Titans that he clicks again, for Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan and Buttler combined to amass 1967 runs – a whopping 72.54% of their total runs in IPL 2025.

It seems like he is back to his belligerent best, continuing his good form with a second successive fifty in this edition. He got a life on 12 when Pant dropped a tough chance, and made the most of the life by finding regular boundaries through the middle overs, much to the chagrin of the spin attack. He then took on George Linde with a hat-trick of boundaries, going past 14,000 T20 runs with the second of those, and later accomplished a 29-ball half-century – his 100th in T20 cricket.

Brief scores: Lucknow Super Giants 164/8 in 20 overs [Aiden Markram 30 (21); Prasidh Krishna 4-28, Ashok Sharma 2-32] lost to Gujarat Titans 165/3 in 18.4 overs [Jos Buttler 60 (37), Shubman Gill 56 (40)] by 7 wickets