Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill believes that dropped catches posed a significant challenge for the team in their pursuit of victory against Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Despite posting a formidable total of 200 runs, GT’s fielding shortcomings, including a couple of dropped catches, proved detrimental to their chances in the Thursday match.

Azmatullah Omarzai missed an opportunity to dismiss Sikandar Raza in the eleventh over, while in the 17th over, veteran pacer Umesh Yadav dropped a catch from PBKS’ impact substitute Ashutosh Sharma. Ashutosh, who had just scored three runs at the time, went on to score 28 runs off the next 14 balls, at a strike rate of 200, ultimately altering the course of the game in favor of PBKS.

“I think a couple of catches went down, never easy (to win) when you drop catches. Bowlers did a decent job, when the ball is coming onto the bat, it’s difficult to defend, I wouldn’t say we were short (on runs). The new ball was doing something. 200 was good enough. We were right in the game till about the 15th over. Always under pressure with dropped catches,” Gill said after the match.

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Gill caused a surprise by entrusting the ball to uncapped pacer Darshan Nalkande to defend seven runs. The 24-year-old GT skipper backed the decision to give Darshan the final over and said, “With the way he’s (Nalkande) bowled in the last match and with 7 runs to go, it was a no brainer for us. People who you haven’t seen will come and play knocks like these and that’s the beauty of IPL.”

In the match, Gill notched up the highest individual score of the IPL 2024, scoring an unbeaten 89 runs, while Rahul Tewatia’s quick cameo of 23* off just 8 deliveries propelled GT to a total of 199/4. In response, Shashank Singh’s blitz of 61* runs and Ashutosh’s contribution of 31 runs led Punjab Kings to chase down the target, securing a three-wicket victory.

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