IPL 2022: Explosive Shubman Gill registers his highest score in T20s as GT post competitive total against DC

Pune, April 2: After Rajasthan Royals opener Jos Buttler struck this season's first century in the first match of the day, it looked like the second game of the weekend double-header would see another century on the cards.

After being invited to bat, Gujarat Titans' Shubman Gill played a stellar knock but fell short of his maiden T20 century. Despite missing out on a ton, Gill played a sizzling knock as he registered his highest score in T20s.

Playing in their second game of the season, Titans got off to a shaky start with opener Matthew Wade (1) being removed by Mustafizur Rahman in the very first over of the match. While Wade fell cheaply, opener Gill top-scored for the Titans at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune.

Gill steadied Gujarat's innings as he stitched together a 35-ball 42 run partnership with Vijay Shankar (13), before the right-handed batsman teamed up with skipper Hardik Pandya to stitch together the team's highest stand in the match and guide the side to a modest total. Gill and Pandya steadied the ship with a 65 off 47 ball partnership.

Despite wickets falling at the other end, the opener looked unfazed as he struck a blistering 84 off 46. Gill's smashing innings included four sixes and six boundaries. The opener looked set for his maiden T20 ton before Khaleel Ahmed struck in the 18th over. Not getting much power into it Gill found Axar Patel at deep midwicket to fall for 84.

Gill registers his highest score in T20s

Though missing out on his ton, the opener registered his best-ever score in T20 cricket. Riding on Gill's explosive knock, Titans reached a competitive total of 171 for 6. On a day when the other batsman failed to fire, Gill score the bulk of the runs for the Titans.

Following his blistering knock, speaking to the broadcasters during the mid-innings break, Gill said, "It felt good. I felt I left a few runs out there but overall am pretty satisfied with the way I played. I didn't realise that I didn't play any dot balls. My focus was to play as few dots as possible and keep rotating the strike as we had lost some early wickets. The wicket was pretty good. It was holding a bit at the start, it wasn't easy to score in front of the wicket but it settled down as the game went on. I feel anywhere between 165 and 180 is good on this wicket."

After being invited to bat, Hardik Pandya-led Titans reached 171/6 to set up a competitive target for the Capitals.