Beneath the buzzing halogen glare, Shubman Gill (84, 44b, 9×4, 3×6) and Sai Sudharsan (55, 36b, 6×4, 2×6) batted with dementor-like cold efficiency; the Rabada-Siraj combine turned the PowerPlay into a high-velocity ambush, and Rashid Khan’s stump-bound middle-over alchemy spelt doom as Gujarat Titans beat Rajasthan Royals by 77 runs in their IPL 2026 clash at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium here on Saturday.

Chasing 230, RR kept losing wickets and struggled to stay in the hunt.

Mohammed Siraj’s 147 kph short ball climbed off the surface, hurrying Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (36) into a top-edged dismissal. Kagiso Rabada bullied Yashasvi Jaiswal (three) with a 152 kph bouncer, forcing a catch off a jammed-up pull.

Rashid returned to his hyper-kinetic hornet mode, offering neither loop nor parabolic flight. He made the ball fizz off the deck, seeking the stumps with a street-smart, predatory hunger. He castled Dhruv Jurel (24), Donovan Ferreira (4), and Shubham Dubey (15) and trapped Ravindra Jadeja (38) plumb in front.

Earlier, Gill was, as he often is, an upright study in perpendicular grace. Not for him the brutal hack or the bare-knuckle blow. His innings was midnight-child magic, a sorcery of timing. It was signature Gill: the late-meeting clarity, the glass-cut contact, the velvet-gloved punch, and the thread-through precision.

When Tushar Deshpande banged it in, Gill simply marched down and knifed him past backward point for a four. Jofra Archer went short outside off, and he rose on his toes to thread the ball between point and cover for a four. Two deliveries later, front foot planted and maker’s name flashing, he lifted Archer gloriously over mid-off for a six.

Archer was then driven straight back over his head, Brijesh Sharma creamed past mid-off, and even Jadeja was charged at and carved over extra cover for fours. The reverse over short third for a four against Yash Raj and an extra-cover six off Brijesh only completed the exhibition.

Sai Sudharsan was, on the other hand, an upright study in calm proportion. He was all quiet craft, a calibration of touch and tempo.

It was Sai Sudharsan distilled: the early-reading clarity, the under-the-eyes contact, the risk-shaving control, and the unhurried accumulation.

As India hurtled towards victory inside three days in the first Test against West Indies at Ahmedabad, B. Sai Sudharsan may have momentarily harboured conflicting emotions. While the comprehensive margin was a gratifying return to winning ways at home for the team, the left-hand batter from Tamil Nadu wouldn’t have minded a second crack with the willow in the game. As it turned out, West Indies was so inept with the bat even the second time around that it went down by an innings and 140 runs.

It left Sai Sudharsan with no opportunity to make amends for his first innings, where a score of seven was all he managed before being dismissed leg-before by Roston Chase’s off-spin. In an innings where everybody else got a start — he and Yashasvi Jaiswal were the only dismissed batters to not reach a half-century — the 23-year-old’s single-digit effort didn’t make for favourable reading against an attack that appeared innocuous for large parts.

When Jaiswal was dismissed on 36 against the run of play, the ideal foundation had been set for the No. 3 to amass a big score. It would have acted as a springboard for someone who is finding his footing in pristine whites after a tour of England that evoked mixed sentiments about his game.

But in the 25th over, he committed the fatal blunder of going back to a delivery that wasn’t all that short. As soon as the ball missed Sai Sudharsan’s swipe across the line and thudded into his left pad, umpire Richard Illingworth raised his index finger.

It means that the top-order batter’s returns after four Tests read 147 runs in seven innings, with just one half-century. In England, the youngster did predominantly display a sound defence, but never managed to capitalise on the unusually dry and benign surfaces on offer. That he was caught down the leg side for a duck in his very first innings of the series seemed to make him conscious against that ploy as the tour wore on.

If it was Karun Nair who was axed after the tour of the Old Blighty and not Sai Sudharsan despite similar returns, it is largely because the latter has age on his side. But with Devdutt Padikkal, 25, in the squad and awaiting his chance, the southpaw from Chennai will have to soon start pulling his weight in the playing eleven. The second Test at the Arun Jaitley Stadium from Friday provides an imminent opportunity.