IPL 2023, PBKS vs GT | You can't take win for granted by scoring fifty in cricket, Sehwag bashes Gill
Virender Sehwag did not hold back his words when discussing the clash in Mohali on Thursday as he put the blame on Shubman Gill for taking the game deeper than required. Sehwag alleged the opener had prioritized his own fifty over the team's required run rate which nearly cost them the game.
Gujarat Titans pulled off a tight run chase against the Punjab Kings to go level on points with table-toppers Rajasthan Royals and Lucknow Super Giants. The reigning champions put up a clinical display with the ball to restrict the hosts to a subpar 153/8 and looked on course for the target for most of the second innings but some late jitters nearly saw them succumb to an upset. In the end, the Titans only got home with a ball and six wickets to spare, much to the dismay of former Indian opener Virender Sehwag.
The veteran criticized Shubman Gill's lack of intent at the top of the order for the team's misery in the final few overs, despite the youngster top-scoring in the match with 67 off 49 deliveries. Sehwag pointed out that the opener took 18 balls to score the last 15 runs required to get to his half-century before immediately amping up the scoring rate after reaching the milestone, as the next nine deliveries begot the batsmen 17 runs.
"He scored 67 off 49 balls but when did he reach his fiifty? He reached his fifty off maybe 41-42 balls so in 7-8 balls he has scored 17 more runs. The acceleration came there, after he had reached his fifty. If even that had not happened then GT would have chasing maybe 17 instead off 7 in the last over," Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.
The Titans were left in a precarious position when Gill was dismissed on the second ball of the last over with the team still requiring six runs off the final four deliveries. It ultimately took a Rahul Tewatia boundary to save the visitors the blushes, a situation that could have been avoided according to Sehwag had Gill taken the initiative to finish off proceedings a bit earlier.
"You can't think let me score a fifty and we will anyway win the match. This is cricket. The moment you think about your own performance (instead of the team), you will get a tight slap from cricket. You can't think like that. If he had showed the same intent and played at close to a strike rate of 200 when he was nearing fifty then he could have reached his milestone a lot earlier and save more deliveries for his team," Sehwag added.
Gill now has 183 runs in the ongoing season at an average of 45.75 and a strike rate of 141.86, slotting in at fifth in the race for the Orange Cap.