IPL: Sudharsan, Krishna lead GT to heavy victory over Royals

Gujarat Titans thrashed Rajasthan Royals by 58 runs in Ahmedabad on Thursday (AEST), with their fourth win of the 2025 Indian Premier League spearheaded by match-winning efforts from Sai Sudharsan and Prasidh Krishna.

Asked to bat first in front of their home crowd, GT lost Shubman Gill (2 from 3) early but got about their work quickly through Sudharsan (82 from 53) and Jos Buttler (36 from 25).

The pair put on 80 runs for the second wicket, setting up Gujarat for a strong second half of their innings.

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Cameos from M Shahrukh Khan (36 from 20), Rahul Tewatia (24 from 12) and Rashid Khan (12 from 4) alongside Sudharsan’s anchoring knock meant GT were able to pile on the runs and reach 6/217.

IPL bookmakers had the hosts as favourites pre-match and shortened their odds even further when RR lost two early wickets in their pursuit of 218.

Yashasvi Jaiswal (6 from 7) and Nitish Rana (1 from 3) were the powerplay victims, both edging out to deep third-man off the pace of Arshad Khan and Mohammad Siraj respectively.

But it was the bowling of Krishna that sunk Rajasthan, with the quick taking the crucial wickets of Sanju Samson (41 from 28) and Shimron Hetmyer (52 from 32) while going at a miserly six runs an over to end with figures of 3/24.

The remainder of the RR batting lineup could not keep pace with the asking rate, falling from 4/116 to 159 all out in the final over.

“IPL is a tournament where you need momentum at the start,” Sudharsan said after he was named player of the match.

“[It is a] joy to contribute and make the team win.

“At the start, the wicket was seaming. We cannot take a lot of time, so made use of the second half of the powerplay.

“Our goal was to have a lot of wickets in hand, it worked well.

“There is awareness. We are clear on what to do.

“If we lose wickets early, a set batter has to play.

“If we give the hitters the right platform, we can make use of the last five, seven overs.”

While Gujarat now sit top of the IPL ladder, cricket bookmakers have them as second-favourites to win the title in 2025.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru lead the market ($4.50), with GT and Punjab Kings on $5.50 and Delhi Capitals on $6.

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