Shubman’s Gill-led Gujarat Titans (GT) faced Ajinkarahane-led Kolkata Knight Rider (KKR) in the 39th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025.
The Gujarat Titans faced the Kolkata Night Riders on 39 runs at Kolkata’s iconic Eden Garden on Monday, April 21st.
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I’m so glad you’ve brought these two victories back to back – Shubman Gill
GT was invited to hit first in the match, and their top three batters shined once more. Shubman Gill hit 90 runs, with Sai Sudharsan and Jos Buttler chipping with 52 and 41 runs respectively, with the Titans posting 198/3 on the board.
The bowlers of the Gujarat Titans have once again done a great job defending the total. All six bowlers, Mohammed Siraj, Ishant Sharma, Prasidh Krishna, Rashid Khan, Washington Sundar and Sai Kishore, chose at least one wicket each to limit the KKR to 159/8.
After winning the Player of the Match Award, Shabmangill said he was very pleased with the back-to-back victory over DC and KKR. He said:
“We’re very pleased. We’ve talked about these two matches – they’re going to decide where we’re going to stand on the table. We’re very pleased to go back through these two wins. We just want to play the best game whenever we’re there.”
I will never talk about what one of us has to stay to the end – Shubman Gill
The GT relies heavily on the top three in the batting order, and Shubmangill revealed he will not talk about one of the top three batters who will stay in the middle until the very end. He said:
“We’ll never talk about what one of us has to stay to the end. We’re talking about how to get a run on these terms and how to deepen the game. We were moving ahead in the game, but we’re going ahead to close the game.”
Gill said he just showed some emotion while talking about his animation celebration following Venkatish Ayer’s wicket. He added that they have not yet played the perfect game at IPL 2025.
“So it was just a small part of my feelings (he’s talking about his animated celebration following the wicket of Venky Iyer). In this format, it’s hard to play the perfect game. As today, we could have 10 runs too. In.”
How did GT work in a previous completed IPL match with KKR?
Previous matches between the Gujarat Titans and the Kolkata Knight Rider have been washed away. Before that, speaking about the game, GT gave a command performance against KKR at Eden Gardens on April 29, 2023, winning a seven-wicket victory with 13 balls in the 39th match of IPL 2023.
Choosing to pick a bowl first, Mohammed Shami rejected Narayan Jagadesan and Shardur Thakur in the power play. The rest of the KKR batting lineup flops badly while Rahmanullah Gurbaz attacked with 39 balls 81.
Pacer Josh Little bowled a brilliant spell (4-0-25-2) in the middle over, with Noor Ahmad (2/21) very well supporting the Pacers. Despite Andre Russell’s late fireworks, the KKR was limited to 179/7, which was a total of below GT.
Chasing the target, Shubman Gill scored 49 out of 35 balls to keep momentum towards his side early in the innings. After that, Wriddhiman Saha and Hardik Pandya also came out with Gil, allowing KKR to stage a small comeback.
However, Vijay Shankar unleashed a brutal attack, defeating 24 balls 51*, and David Miller blowing up 32* from 18 balls as the run chase was completed in 17.5 overs.