IPL 2023: Mohit Sharma, Shubman Gill shine as Gujarat Titans beat PBKS by six wickets

Gujarat Titans roared back to winning ways with a six-wicket victory over Punjab Kings after Mohit Sharma's excellent return to IPL and Shubman Gill's 49-ball 67 here on Thursday.

Medium pacer Mohit marked his comeback with figures of 2/18 as holders GT restricted PBKS to 153 for eight. Playing in his first game in league since 2020, Mohit was exceptional in penultimate over, giving away as little as six runs.

When ir turn to bat came, Gill led way with his fine half-century as GT completed chase of 154 in 19.5 overs, four days after suffering a heartbreaking loss to Kolkata Knight Riders.

Having done duty as team's net bowler last season, Mohit, who has also played for Indian team including in World Cup, mixed his pace and varied his lengths well throughout his spell. Later, young Gill once again showed his class with a quality inning that contained seven fours and a six.

From GT's point of view, it was extremely important that Gill stayed on till end, especially after dismissal of captain Hardik Pandya with team still 48 runs away from ir third victory in 34 balls.

For PBKS, Matw Short top-scored with a 24-ball 36 but it was Masood Shahrukh Khan's nine-ball 22, which helped team cross 150.

GT were off to a flyer and scored 56 in six powerplay overs with Gill going great guns.

Meanwhile, PBKS' lead pacer Kagiso Rabada became fastest to 100 wickets in IPL, when he had Wriddhiman Saha (30 off 19 balls) caught at deep square leg off a short ball.

South Africa speedster took just 64 games to reach landmark, six matches fewer than Lasith Malinga's 70.

Earlier, sent in to bat after coin landed in favour of returning GT skipper Hardik, PBKS lost Prabhsimran Singh in second ball of over when his attempted flick off a length ball from Mohammed Shami went straight to Rashid Khan at short midwicket.

Prabhsimran departed without scoring. Short walked in at number three and he got off mark with a boundary, striking ball through point. next ball was short, and Short pulled seasoned India seamer through square leg region for ar four.

Sharing new ball with Shami, Joshua Little was welcomed with two boundaries by in-form Shikhar Dhawan. While first one was lofted over cover, Dhawan produced a delightful shot in next ball, caressing ball past mid-off in what was a high-class cover drive.

Australia's Short, who has done well for Adelaide Strikers in Big Bash League back home, took on Shami and hit him for back-to-back fours including an authoritative boundary through mid-off.

However, just when PBKS seemed to be putting GT under pressure Little gave his team a huge breakthrough, dismissing dangerous Dhawan (8) who came down track to play lofted shot, only to end up giving a catch to Alzarri Joseph.

GT got ar big wicket when ever-reliable Rashid (1/26 in 4 overs) foxed a well-settled Short with a googly with PBKS's score reading 55 for three in seventh over.

Having struck a flurry of fours and a massive six off Joseph, Short had settled down nicely but looked clueless when Rashid decided to bowl wrong'un.

Short's dismissal set PBKS a bit, and it became trickier when Jitesh Sharma (25 off 23 balls) was sent back by Mohit, thanks to a smart piece of work by Wriddhiman behind wickets.

Sam Curran (22) struck a much-needed six -- a big maximum over deep midwicket after star leg-spinner Rashid missed his length.

Sri Lankan Bhanuka Rajapaksa did t convince in his 26-ball 20, until his stay in middle was cut short by Joseph. Shahrukh Khan smashed first ball he faced for a six over deep midwicket, before picking up ar maximum off Shami.