One of the most high octane and action packed contests in the current or ongoing season of the IPL happened last evening featuring two sides interestingly placed at opposing ends of the tournament. While on the one hand, the Gujarat Titans may have looked at their game as a practice contest ahead of the more challenging build up of events that are lying up ahead. That’s given the Playoff arena for which they have already qualified but on the other hand, the Chennai Super Kings would have looked at last evening’s contest as an opportunity to sign off from what has largely been a disappointing or forgettable tournament on a high.
However, in the great game of cricket, there can only be one winner and on that particular occasion, it were the mighty lads from the Gujarat Titans side who actually made lightwork of their opponents restricting them to a dainty score of 140 and more shatteringly (from a CSK perspective) to inside under 15 overs.
Chennai were able to last out in the middle for a total of only 13.4 deliveries. But while all of that was disappointing but what wasn’t, after all, was the commanding batting effort of the lad known as Shivam Dube.
The left hander, known for his proclivity for big hitting, contributed 47 runs on his own, which is around forty percent of the entire team’s run output.
That being side, it was the manner of his dismissal that made much noise on social media with him having done nothing about it. It was, in fact, the very fielder who captured the big prized catch of the big hitter that led to the buzz on social media.
It was none other than Shubman Gill, the agile fielder who took several steps backwards from the cover region outside the circle and dived back landing safely on his front to complete the catch. But perhaps it could be argued so vital was that big wicket of Dube that the captain of the Gujarat side got a little animated or charged up the moment the catch was safely completed. He signalled- and was visible quite evidently- waving out to the fans to move out of the stadia. And eventually, as one found out, it was Dube’s wicket that ultimately mattered a great deal.
On a day where even the great Sanju Samson faltered as did biggies like Dewald Brevis, the little respectability that the Chennai scorecard commanded out there thanks to Dube was also gone once the tall hitter departed. And with that did the hopes of the struggling side to make it to the next round of the tournament.
