After a tough loss to Chennai Super Kings in Qualifier 1 of IPL 2023 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Wednesday, Gujarat Titans Vijay Shankar rued the fact that the table toppers were not able to chase better, despite the fact that GT have been excellent when it comes to chase. Tuesday’s loss was only their fourth while chasing in 18 matches.
“I think we could have chased better. We could have got the game much closer," said Shankar in the post-match presser.
GT were outplayed by the master tactician MS Dhoni, who put the squeeze on in the middle courtesy of their two fingers spinners, Ravindra Jadeja and Maheesh Theekshana – both of whom combined for 46 runs in eight overs and scalped four wickets between them, and Shankar felt it was during this phase that CSK went ahead.
“I think they (CSK) bowled bold pretty well in the middle overs. The middle overs are very, very important for any team that is chasing. We lost wickets. Otherwise, if you see, we lost by 15 runs. If two batters were batting, things would have been different. It is just about losing a wicket at the wrong time. Maybe a partnership of 20, 30 runs in the middle could have got us closer to the game," said the allrounder.
Also in question were GT’s tactics, especially the shuffle in the batting order. Shankar had batted brilliantly against RCB a couple of days back scoring a vital 53 off just 34 balls batting at No.3, but came to bat only at No.5 against CSK with his team tottering at 88/4, and after facing just a single delivery, he lost his partner, the well-set Shubman Gill. And with Shankar being the only recognised specialist batter in the middle, the writing was on the wall.
“Actually, if you see overall in this season, all the batters have played in different positions. So it is not just this game. Most of the games," said Shankar in a bid to defend GT’s tactical error. “I think that was the strength of our batting unit as well. Whoever went in different situations, we were able to adapt to it and get runs for the team.
When you lose a wicket and when you lose a game, things will look odd that we have changed a lot and all. But we have been playing like this overall right from game 1 until now. I think we have shuffled our batting according to the conditions and situations and we have done well."
Yet, with a 19-run over in the 17th, Shankar and Rashid Khan manage to revive GT’s innings only to give GT fans false hope as Shankar perished in the 18th after scoring 14 off 10, and sealed the deal for CSK in the match.
“Even the over that I got it, I felt I could have calculated a little better. I could have targeted in a better way. So it was a great learning for us. I think we have won a lot of games chasing and this is one of game that we had," opined Shankar, who this season has had decent returns scoring 301 runs at 160.11 in 12 matches.
In fact, this is the first season since 2019 that Shankar has managed to play more than eight games in a season. After a decent run in 2018 and 2019 that aided Shankar’s ODI and T20 debuts the Tamil Nadu player had gone off the boil with a few quiet seasons with Sunrisers Hyderabad and also with GT last year. He had played only four games for the franchise in 2022 with very poor returns.
In an interview earlier this month with CricketNext, Shankar had said that he was quite lucky to be playing for GT this year after the horrendous 2022 season he endured. Shankar came into the IPL on the back of a very good run in the domestic circuit and he has translated that form to IPL. Shankar has been visibly playing more freely and trying to hit big shots, something which he mentioned has worked on with coach Gary Kirsten.
“Yeah. Before starting the season, I was hitting the ball pretty well and worked on a few things. It is not just about playing once and twos, but also at times, you need to get those boundaries when the team really needed that.
But it was just about my preparation. I think I prepared really well before the season and the small change that I made with Gary helped me to open up a lot of shots that I had, but I couldn’t do it. But I was happy that I’m able to play those shots now."
All is not lost for GT as of yet as they now move to Ahmadabad and await the winner of the Eliminator between Lucknow Super Giants and Mumbai Indians to have a crack at the final once more time and Shankar is confident that his team will be able to pull through at the Narendra Modi Stadium come Friday.
“I think till now, we have been playing a lot of home and away games. So it is just about going there and adapting to our conditions as quickly as we can. And overall, we’ve been playing wonderful cricket. So one game won’t change much. So it is just about regrouping and coming out and giving our best for the team," he concluded.
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