By Kavita Mistry 
Ahmedabad: Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj grabbed two wickets each as Gujarat Titans registered a 38-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad, in Match 51 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Friday.
With this loss, SRH stand virtually eliminated, having won only three of their 10 games. Hosts, Gujarat Titans, moved past Royal Challengers Bengaluru, via net run rate, into the second spot with 14 points. With Sunrisers Hyderabad chasing a massive target of 225 courtesy of half-centuries by Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler for Gujarat Titams, no one could not rule out the dangerous opening pair of Abhishek Sharma (74) and Travis Head (20) who got off to a strong start with a six and four respectively off Mohammed Siraj in the first over.
Abhishek, the young Indian batter, scored at a brisk pace while Head joined in with three boundaries, and the duo could have made a serious dent in GT’s total if it was not for a screamer of a catch by Rashid Khan. A short delivery by Prasidh Krishna saw Head pull it towards the square boundary, where Rashid covered quite some distance and took a solid diving catch to leave the Australian in disbelief and also saw Krishna reclaim the Purple Cap.
While Abhishek kept finding boundaries at regular intervals, Ishan Kishan (13) seriously struggled on this day and failed to find a single boundary during his 17-ball stay at the crease. The game always looked to be creeping away from the visitors despite Abhishek and Heinrich Klassen (23) dispatching Rashid Khan for a six each in the 11th over. Abhishek notched his first half-century of the campaign in the 12th over with a six off Gerald Coetzee. He went on to score 74 off 41 at a strike rate of 180.49 before losing his wicket in an effort to further ramp up the run-rate. A short ball by Ishant Sharma saw Abhishek mistime his pull-shot, and Siraj ran in from deep midwicket to take a low catch to completely drag the game in GT’s favour. Krishna added to the visitors’ misery by finding a thin inside edge off Klassen as he claimed his 100th wicket in the format.
Brief scores:
Gujarat Titans 224/6 in 20 overs (Shubman Gill 76, Jos Buttler 64; Jaydev Unadkat 3-35, Pat Cummins 1-40) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 186/6 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 74, Heinrich Klassen 23; Prasidh Krishna 2-19, Mohammed Siraj 2-33) by 38 runs