30 May,2026 09:35 AM IST | New Chandigarh | Agencies
Sai Sudharsan (left) and Shubman Gill during their 167-run stand against RR on Friday. Pics/IPL
Skipper Shubman Gill (53-ball 104) and his opening partner Sai Sudarshan (32-ball 58) came up with brilliant knocks to take their team into the final of IPL-19 with a seven-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals here on Friday.
The duo added 167 runs for the opening wicket in just 12.5 overs before Sudharsan was dismissed hit wicket for the second consecutive time in the tournament.
GT will meet Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the summit clash at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday.
Chasing 214-6 set by GT, thanks mainly to wonderboy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's 47-ball 96, the GT opening pair hardly looked in trouble as they went about their run-scoring business with ease. Gill smashed three sixes and 15 fours, while Sudharshan hit one six and eight fours as the seamless partnership saw GT home with eight balls to spare.
Earlier, teen Sooryavanshi played some astonishing shots before Donovan Ferreira smashed GT's Rashid Khan for four sixes in the 20th over to push RR across the 200 mark in the Qualifier 2 clash.
There was a bigger crowd in attendance than on Wednesday night, and the majority of them turned up to watch the 15-year-old Sooryavanshi go about his belligerent business. And they got more than their money's worth with Sooryavanshi continuing to boss the best bowlers around, including Kagiso Rabada and Jason Holder on this occasion.
Having lost Yashavi Jaiswal and Dhruv Jurel inside the second over, Sooryavanshi needed to adapt on a used surface where Mohd Siraj, Rabada and Prasidh Krishna came with a clear plan: bowl back of a length into the body and throw in the odd bouncer to contain Sooryavanshi.
With the same pitch picked for the second game in a row, the ball did not come on to the bat as nicely as it did in the Eliminator, yet Sooryavanshi managed to hammer eight fours and seven sixes. Promoted to No. 4 considering the situation, Ravindra Jadeja (45' off 35) played his part perfectly too. Struggling with a tennis elbow, he retired hurt before returning to support Ferreria in the death overs (38' off 11).
3
No. of IPL final appearances for GT
1
Shubman Gill became the first captain to score a century in the IPL Playoffs
521
No. of runs scored by Sooryavanshi in the Powerplay - the most by any player in an IPL season
440
No. of balls Sooryavanshi took to score 1000 IPL runs - the fewest by any player
31
No. of balls Sooryavanshi took to score his half-century on Friday - his slowest IPL fifty
3
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is the third RR player to score multiple half-centuries in the IPL Playoffs
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