"Gujarat Titans can tell you how expensive that no-ball was" - Harbhajan Singh on Ruturaj Gaikwad's early reprieve in Qualifier 1

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) registered their first IPL victory against reigning champions Gujarat Titans (GT) by 15 runs in Qualifier 1 of IPL 2023 at the Chepauk Stadium in Chennai on Tuesday, May 23.

Titans skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss and asked CSK to bat first on a slow wicket in their own den. CSK opener Ruturaj Gaikwad stoutly accepted the decision, as he played some fluent strokes in the powerplay to certainly hold the advantage.

Ruturaj Gaikwad smashed seven fours and one six to reach his 14th half century in 36 balls. However, Gaikwad was dismissed in the second over by Darshan Nalkande when the former was batting on 2.

The CSK opener lobbed Nalkande's cutter and was caught at mid-wicket. But to everyone's dismay in the Titans' camp, Nalkande overstepped for a no-ball and hence conceded a reprieve to Gaikwad.

Analyzing the result of Qualifier 1 between CSK and GT, former Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh said on his YouTube channel:

"Titans can tell you how expensive that no-ball was. Had it been a caught, there was nothing special in CSK's batting after Ruturaj's dismissal (on 60). His 60 was very fluent in 44 balls. When Ruturaj got one chance, he ensured to make the best out of it."

Harbhajan further said CSK's total of 172 in the first innings was enough to be a defendable score given the nature of the pitch at Chepauk.

He added:

"When they made 172 on this pitch, they had quite enough runs. We discussed the same in the commentary box that the pitch has slowed and it was good for CSK to lose the toss and they got to bat first."

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"Gujarat Titans didn't score enough in powerplay" - Harbhajan Singh

Gujarat Titans opener Shubman Gill top-scored in their rare failure to chase a target in the IPL. Gill carried his red-hot form into Qualifier 1, scoring 42 runs off 38 balls with the help of four boundaries and a six.

He attempted to pull against a slower bouncer off Deepak Chahar and ended up losing his crucial wicket in the 14th over. GT were bowled out for 157 at the end of the chase despite Rashid Khan's (30 in 16 balls) relentless efforts to bring them back into the game.

Speaking about the difficulty of batting on the slow pitch at Chepauk, Harbhajan Singh cited the knock played by Gill.

Harbhajan said:

"Even though Shubman Gill is in a great form, strokeplaying on this pitch was a bit difficult. Here you won't get a fluent innings. Shubman Gill's 42 run-knock in 38 balls is an example of how difficult the pitch was (to bat). The powerplay for GT wasn't great as they didn't score enough runs (42/2) there."

Gujarat Titans will either play Mumbai Indians or Lucknow Super Giants in Qualifier 2 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on May 26.