Kagiso Rabada and Mohammed Siraj picked up early wickets for the Gujarat Titans, but rising young superstar Viabhav Sooryavanshi hit back for the Rajasthan Royals, as they finished the powerplay on 70 for two in their Tata IPL final qualifier at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in New Chandigarh on Friday evening.
Siraj picked up the big wicket of opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (1) with the fourth ball of the match, after he top-edged him to Prasidh Krishna at deep backward square leg, while Rabada had Dhruv Jurel (7) popping an easy catch to captain Shubman Gill at mid-off in the second over, as they slipped to nine for two.
But Sooryavanshi started the fightback, striking five fours and a six in his unbeaten 31 off 17 balls, while Ravindra Jadeja followed suit, finishing the powerplay strong as he hit four boundaries and a six in his unbeaten 26 off 11, to put them in a good position after their difficult start.
GUJARAT TITANS: Shubman Gill (capt), Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler (wk), Jason Holder, Washington Sundar, Nishant Sindhu, Rashid Khan, Sai Kishore, Kagiso Rabada, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj
RAJASTHAN ROYALS: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (capt), Donovan Ferreira, Dasun Shanaka, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Brijesh Sharma, Yashraj Punja