It was here at Ahmedabad, a year ago that the Chennai Super Kings downed Gujarat Titans in a last-ball classic in the IPL final. That’s when Sai Sudharsan’s 47-ball 96 went in vain. However, this time, the young left-hander's maiden IPL hundred - 103 (51b, 5x4, 7x6), did not go waste. The GT skipper Shubman Gill doubled down on the ton with a century of his own 104 (55b, 9x4,6x6) to set up a 35-run win and pull one back against CSK in this slow-brewing IPL rivalry.

Gill and Sudharsan went 10-runs-an-over in the Powerplay without playing a shot in anger. Those runs came courtesy of plenty of eye-catching strokes. Perhaps to catch the attention of the local crowd who were fluttering GT flags while wearing CSK’s yellow. Gill, with his nimble footwork against spin, and Sudharsan, with his strong back-foot game against pace, were doing it admirably well.

Every now and then CSK would apply brakes with old fashioned length bowling and variations – Shardul Thakur’s three-run fifth over and Daryl Mitchell’s seven-run eighth over being examples of exactly that. The action wasn’t frenzied, GT’s approach was not as aggressive as some of the other teams. But they stuck with their method.

But with classical players, you sometimes don’t realise when they change gears. When Gill and Sudharsan completed their fifties at the start of the 11th over, GT were 107. By the time they raced to their respective hundreds in the 16th over, the team total was 209. Simarjeet’s Singh’s inexperience showed when he lost the plot in the 11th over and went for 23.

When Gill decided to up the ante, he smeared Mitchell’s figures with three sixes to three different part of the ground – pulling behind square and not in front as he usually does, depositing the back-of-the-hand slower ball over the bowler’s head and driving over covers. He could have been caught to one of those in the deep, but Tushar Deshpande grassed it, leaving the Kiwi bowler frustrated.

When Gill brought up his first hundred of the tournament, he didn’t bow to the crowd as he usually does. His celebration was more animated than usual - pumping his fists while releasing the pent-up frustration of a run of poor scores that may have cost him a World Cup berth.

Sudharsan, who had been in good touch for a few matches, was nowhere as flashy while celebrating, but with his first IPL hundred, the Chennai boy from GT had taken the sword to CSK.

Without Pathirana, Mustafizur and Deepak Chahar, CSK still had nine bowling options, but it never really worked. Except Shardul (4-0-25-0) and Deshpande (4-0-33-2), the others didn’t find the going easy.

After Gill and Sudharsan departed, completing the joint highest opening partnership in the IPL (210 runs), GT couldn’t provide the finishing kick with only 41 runs coming in the final five to set up the 231-run target.

CSK, guilty of fiddling with their top order, began poorly and lost three wickets in no time. Daryl Mitchell and Moeen Ali helped them recover from 3/10. Only Moeen 56 (36b) found his hitting range when he deposited Noor Ahmad for three consecutive sixes. But Mohit Sharma lived up to the faith shown by the team management, by not only sending Mitchell back for 63 (34b, 7x4,3x6) but returning with figures of 4-0-31-3.

When Jadeja joined Dube, they needed 97 off 34 balls but couldn’t go far. They would want to do better to boost CSK’s playoff hopes – they are in mid-table logjam with DC and LSG. Then again, they could find themselves in a similar situation with a World Cup match on the line, next month.

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