SRH vs GT, IPL 2025 | Siraj and Gill star as Titans drub Sunrisers

Gujarat Titans’ Washington Sundar and Shubman Gill run the between the wickets during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 Twenty20 Championship cricket match between the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Gujarat Titans at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket stadium in Hyderabad on April 6, 2025
| Photo Credit: K.V.S. GIRI

The diminishing aura around Sunrisers Hyderabad’s batting line-up was brought to the fore, this time by Gujarat Titans in a seven-wicket drubbing in an IPL clash at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Sunday.

Asked to bat first, SRH — once the IPL’s ‘unstoppable force’ — was halted at 152 for eight by a Titans attack led by local boy Mohammed Siraj, before Shubman Gill marshalled his troops in a fairly straightforward chase.

Siraj, who returned his career-best figures in the IPL, hit SRH where it hurt most, removing Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma in the PowerPlay. The second wicket also handed the pacer his 100th scalp in the tournament. Prasidh Krishna, who has been stingy thus far this season, snuffed out Ishan Kishan in the eighth over to leave SRH in trouble.

The biggest indicator of Sunrisers’ crawl against Titans was the fact that it took the side 76 balls to bring up the first six of the innings, the first time since April 2023 that the franchise had not scored a maximum in the first 10 overs.

GT did not allow an edgy SRH to fluently find the fence. Desperate attempts from Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma and Pat Cummins could only take SRH to a total well under par, given its own lofty standards.

With the much-lambasted SRH bowling arsenal in the hot seat, Cummins and Mohammad Shami started strong. The latter sent back the in-form Sai Sudarshan and the former got the explosive Jos Buttler to nick a length delivery to Klaasen to get the crowd roaring.

Washington Sundar, on his Titans debut, kept the pressure on SRH by taking Simarjeet Singh to the cleaners, smashing two fours and as many sixes, including an eye-catching flick of the wrist that saw the ball sail over fine-leg.

Gill eased himself in, bringing up his half-century to push forward GT’s pursuit. A moment of magic from fielder Aniket to dismiss an on-song Washington perked up the hopes of everyone wearing an orange shirt.

Sunrisers’ joy, however, was short-lived, as Sherfane Rutherford, in Gill’s company, piloted GT home with 20 balls to spare.