Gujarat Titans opener Sai Sudharsan etched his name into IPL record books on Friday night as he powered his way to a landmark against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. The left-handed batter, who had endured a slow start to the campaign with only one fifty in his first six outings, produced a decisive 33-ball half-century versus RCB. In the same innings, Sudharsan also crossed 2,000 IPL runs, reaching the tally in his 47th appearance—one fewer than Chris Gayle, who previously held the mark at 48. The former West Indies opener had also needed 48 innings to get to 2,000.
Sudharsan’s fastest route to 2,000 IPL runs
- 47 innings: Sai Sudharsan
- 48 innings: Chris Gayle
- 52 innings: Shaun Marsh
- 57 innings: Ruturaj Gaikwad
- 60 innings: KL Rahul
In addition to being the quickest by innings, Sudharsan is also noted as the sixth fastest Indian batter to reach 2,000 IPL runs when judged by the number of balls faced. The list of fastest Indian batters to the 2,000-run mark is as follows: 1,193 balls—Abhishek Sharma; 1,211—Virender Sehwag; 1,306—Rishabh Pant; 1,326—Yashasvi Jaiswal; 1,353—Yusuf Pathan; 1,361—Sai Sudharsan.
RCB vs GT: toss and team news
- Rajat Patidar, captaining RCB, won the toss and chose to field first against Gujarat Titans.
- The fixture marked RCB’s last home match of the season at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
- Gujarat Titans entered the game after suffering a heavy 99-run defeat to the Mumbai Indians.
- During the match, Jason Holder made his Gujarat Titans debut.
At the toss, Patidar explained the thinking behind the decision to bowl first, also referencing a late injury concern. “We will field first. One change—Salty (Phil Salt) got injured, (jacob) Bethell is in. One great point is that we’re assessing the wicket and the situation well, and our planning has been good. This looks like a good wicket for batting, but it lacks grass and could be tacky in the first innings,” he said.
GT skipper Shubman Gill responded with his view on the chase and the importance of reading conditions early. “Not really, chasing is good here, but hopefully we’ll have a good game. It’s all about assessing the conditions early, getting off to a good start and setting up the foundation early. Games like that (against MI) can happen in such a big tournament, but we’re focusing on the positives. Two changes: Jason Holder is playing, and Manav Suthar is back,” Gill added.
