For the second time in three nights, teen phenom Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was dismissed in the 90s, caught at third-man. For the second time in four nights, Sai Sudharsan managed to get himself out hit wicket, the bat spiralling off his hands and unerringly zeroing in on the stumps.
But it was a first of the season that shone the brightest on Friday. Shubman Gill, not just the Gujarat Titans skipper but also the captain of the Indian Test and ODI teams, produced a breathtaking innings of subliminal brilliance on his way to his first century this year, hauling his team to the final of IPL 2026, in their Ahmedabad backyard on Sunday against Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
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All season long, Gill has looked in pristine touch without going on to produce a defining innings. Alongside his left-handed opener partner Sudharsan, he has been the engine room of the Gujarat campaign, batting with flair and authority and orthodoxy and leading with imagination and composure. He must have been smarting from the 92-run drubbing in Tuesday’s Qualifier 1 against RCB; retribution was swift in coming as Rajasthan Royals were at the receiving end of a beautifully brutal bashing that knocked the stuffing out of them and brought their interesting campaign to an abrupt end.
Just kilometres away from where he was born, Gill conjured the magic in New Chandigarh that has been his unwavering ally since his Under-19 days. Unhurried despite being confronted with a target of 215, he dotted the night with a series of stunning strokes that wouldn’t have been out of place in Test cricket. There were no cute dinks, no outrageous reverses, no moving around in his crease to put the bowlers off kilter. This was just Gill doing Gill things, with a calm and steady head, with fastness of hands, with an eye that spotted only gaps on the vast outfield, not the fielders who were often reduced to mute, admiring spectators even though they were at the receiving end.
One of those fielders was Sooryavanshi, once again the cynosure for his mesmeric 96. But this wasn’t a typical Sooryavanshi special. Against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator on Wednesday, he lashed 97 off 29; on this night, against a more switched on bowling attack that used angles and the bounce to great effect, he needed 31 deliveries to reach 50 before switching gears without warning, shaken out of his slumber by a blow to the helmet from Kagiso Rabada.
His last 46 runs came off just 16 deliveries as he reiterated his credentials as the most exciting batter in the world currently. His disappointment at being dismissed in the 90s for the third time in four innings was palpable but as he dragged himself off the park, everyone was aware that yet again, they had witnessed something special.
To shade that effort speaks to the command Gill showcased at the crease. His evening hadn’t begun well — Gill thought he had won the toss, match referee Prakash Bhatt said he hadn’t heard Riyan Parag’s call and therefore there was a re-toss which the Rajasthan skipper won, thereby stymieing Gill’s desire to bat first – and unravelled rapidly with his trump card, Rashid Khan, leaking 45 in two overs. From a target of maybe 190, Gujarat were chasing 25 more; the captain was anything but amused.
But instead of moping, Gill channelised his well-concealed angst beautifully. He would admit later that he was in the ‘zone’, the intangible that simply can’t be explained. Loosely, it translates to seeing the ball like a football, sighting it and sizing up length that extra second or so early, and then hitting the gaps that can appear tiny and miniscule when one is struggling for runs. Gill directed the ball where he wanted with admirable regularity, pulling Jofra Archer repeatedly and hitting over the straight field without sacrificing shape or grace.
There was a certain inevitability to his tryst with three figures even after he lost Sudharsan to a freak dismissal. The captain and his trusted lieutenant put on a century stand for the third time this season – they now have 11 100-plus partnerships in just 48 innings – but such was Gill’s focus that he didn’t allow Sudharsan’s fall to impact his rhythm adversely. An inside-out cover-drive off Ravindra Jadeja took him to his hundred in just 47 deliveries, and by the time he was trapped leg before by Archer, the result was a foregone conclusion.
It needed an impeccable masterclass from one of the best young batters in international cricket to snatch the spotlight away from the 15-year-old Sooryavanshi. This Friday night was about Shubman Gill, the poster boy for trusting his strength (technical exactitude) to boss a format that, it’s erroneously believed, rewards only brute strength.
