Former India player Aakash Chopra has noted that the Gujarat Titans’ (GT) tactics of restricting the big-hitting SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) batters with their spinners helped them register a win in their IPL 2024 match as well. The Titans restricted SRH to 162/8 in Ahmedabad in the first game on Sunday, March 31 and then chased down the target with seven wickets and five deliveries in hand.
Reviewing the game in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said, “The home domination sequence continued because Hyderabad’s six-hitting machine was brought to a grinding halt. Gujarat’s Titanic sailed and made the opposition team fail. It is very interesting or I should say it is slightly boring. I feel if anyone scores close to 190 or 200 runs against Gujarat, they won’t be able to win the match. However, they are going to win 160 to 170-run matches. They won one earlier and have won again. They will show you a slightly boring style of cricket but they are effective.”
However, Aakash Chopra said that the best way to trap SRH is by bowling more spin against them and trying to limit them between 160 and 170 as well.
“Mohit Sharma was my No. 1 performer of the day. Ashish Nehra probably told him that they got him very cheap, so they would release and then reacquire him, and that he would get money based on his value,” he shared. “However, he said that he wouldn’t go. Loyalty is royalty. He picked up three wickets. He will continue to take wickets at this ground because it’s a huge ground and he has a lot of variations.”
“When Gujarat Titans got to bat, Sai Sudharsan batted well. He is just meant for totals in this range. He doesn’t try to increase the strike rate too much but keeps driving the game, and he takes the game deep. It was the case of who would blink first. There Hyderabad gave an over to Mayank Markande and he was destroyed,” Aakash Chopra concluded. “The third performer was David Miller. If it’s in the arc, it goes out of the park. He had a slight injury in his leg but played an important knock and finished the match. When you see this batting lineup, it’s slightly less experienced. So there is a lot of responsibility on whichever overseas batter plays and he lived up to that responsibility.”
