Shubman Gill scored his maiden IPL century to help holders Gujarat Titans secure their play-off spot with a 34-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad at Sardar Patel Stadium on Monday.
Gill, who smashed 101 off 58 balls, and Sai Sudarshan, who scored 47, put on a 147-run stand to lead Gujarat to 188-9 in Ahmedabad.
Mohammed Shami and Mohit Sharma each took four wickets as Gujarat became the first team to secure one of the four play-off spots by limiting Hyderabad to 154-9.
Gujarat, who won the championship in their debut season last year, are also assured of a top-two finish in the group phase.
“Very proud of the boys. Two in two. Last year was different, we knew there’d be a lot of challenges this year,” skipper Hardik Pandya said.
“Boys have put their hands up in different situations. I think we’ve rightly earned the chance of making the play-offs.”
The 2016 champions, Hyderabad, were eliminated from the playoff race, leaving seven teams competing for three remaining spots.
“Lots of pride still left in the upcoming games,” said captain Aiden Markram.
“Maybe we’ll give out a few opportunities and guys can finish well but sadly we haven’t been good.”
Gill hit Fazalhaq Farooqi for four consecutive boundaries to set the tempo after Gujarat lost Wriddhiman Saha for a duck on the third ball of the match.
Gill, who jumped to second in the batting rankings with 576 runs behind Bangalore captain Faf du Plessis (631), and Sudarshan were both destructive in their 36-ball stays.
Gill, who has scored a hundred in all three international formats, was named the game’s most valuable player.
Gujarat scored only 34 runs in the final five overs and lost seven wickets despite Gill’s century off 56 balls.
The Sunrisers bowlers did well to prevent Gujarat’s total from exceeding 200, as seam bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned 5-30, but their efforts were in vain.
Hyderabad were never in the hunt after falling from 12-3 to 59-7 with Shami taking two wickets.
Heinrich Klaasen then scored 64 runs and added 68 runs with Kumar, who scored 27, but the stand did not reduce South Africa’s margin of defeat.
