Young Gujarat Titans top-order batter Sai Sudharsan and late bloomer Vijay Shankar gave an indication of what lies ahead in the ongoing IPL, with the duo smashing superb half centuries to power the defending champions to 204 for four against Kolkata Knight Riders here on Sunday. Sudharsan, who had scored an unbeaten 62 against Delhi Capitals in the previous match, struck 53 off 38 balls, studded with three boundaries and two maximums, while Shankar took just 24 balls to score an unbeaten 63, embellished with four boundaries and five sixes, as the Titans, who were led by Rashid Khan in the absence of an unwell Hardik Pandya made hay at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Young Shubman Gill too came to the party, scoring a feisty 39 and sharing a 67-run partnership with Sudharsan before he was dismissed by West Indian spinner Sunil Narine.
The maturity Gill and Sudharsan displayed after opener Wriddhiman Saha had departed early, dismissed by Narine for just 17 runs (17 balls), helped the team overcome the early setback and take the total to 100 runs without losing any further wicket.
The pair's half-century stand laid the foundation and by the time Gill departed, holing out a length delivery from Narine at long-on in the 12th over, he had put the Titans well on course for a big total.
The left-handed Sudharsan flourished from the moment he arrived at the crease at the fall of Saha. He kept picking up handy runs, including a six, as the pair kept the scoreboard ticking.
The best part about the partnership was that the pair kept rotating the strike, taking singles at the first opportunity to keep the opposition on tenterhooks.
Gill's dismissal, which came as a big blow, brought in Abhinav Manohar, who plundered three consecutive boundaries off Umesh Yadav in the 13th over. But his cameo 14-run innings off just eight deliveries was brought to an end by Delhi teenager Suyash Sharma, whose googly ripped through the gap between the bat and pad to dismiss the batter.
Earlier, the Titans, who are gunning for their third consecutive win in the IPL this season, were off to a sedate start with Umesh and Lockie Ferguson extracting good pace and bounce.
Saha, though, gave an indication early he wanted to take risks when he tried to pull a rising delivery from Shardul Thakur in the second over but was late on the stroke as the ball flicked the helmet and flew over the keeper's head to bring up the first boundary for GT.
However, Umesh's nagging line, even though he bowled in the vicinity of just 135-138, continued to trouble both Gill and Saha and restrained them from playing their natural strokes in powerplays. Umesh kept mixing his short-pitched and good-length deliveries to keep the batters guessing.
While the pair adapted quickly to the raw pace of Ferguson, who was the first-change bowler in the fourth over and consistently clocked 150-plus, scoring against him was difficult. But all that changed when Shankar came at the crease, unleashing a mayhem by scoring at an astronomical strike rate of 262.50.