Jason Holder, Rabada wreck SRH as GT take top spot

Gujarat Titans beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 82 runs at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. GT moved to No. 1 with 16 points from 12 games. SRH dropped to 3rd with 14 points. Kagiso Rabada and Mohammed Siraj could have been wearing their Test whites. By the end of the powerplay, they had bowled three overs each, and Sunrisers Hyderabad were reduced to 34 for 4. Somehow, they had outdone the Gujarat Titans batting line-up from the first innings - they had been reduced to 34 for 2 themselves. Wickets in hand allowed B Sai Sudharsan (61 off 44) and Washington Sundar (50 off 33) to mount a comeback for GT. On the other hand, SRH let a tricky chase of 168 slip from their grasp, folding for 86 in 14.5 overs. SRH 86 in 14.5 overs – their lowest IPL total ever, beating 96 vs MI in 2019. Power Play: 32/4. Rabada + Siraj ripped through top order. Wickets: Travis Head 0, Abhishek Sharma 6, Ishan Kishan 11, Smaran 9 – all gone inside 6 overs. Highest scorer: Pat Cummins 19 off 9 Kagiso Rabada: 3/28 in 4 overs. Dismissed Abhishek, Kishan, Smaran. Now has 16 powerplay wickets, most in IPL 2026. Jason Holder: 3/20 in 4 overs. Got Klaasen 14, Nitish Reddy, Shivang Kumar. Used hard lengths + bounce to kill chase. Support: Siraj 1/8 with 12 dots, Prasidh 2/23, Rashid finished it. An endless battery of tall GT fast bowlers - rounded out by Jason Holder and Impact Player Prasidh Krishna in the middle overs - kept striking in the chase. At the end of it, GT rose to the top of the table with 16 points. GT's go-slow Pat Cummins unlocked the secret to bowling on this surface early: he pushed it in on a hard length, and kept swinging the new ball away from both Sudharsan and Gill. But the first two wickets for SRH came from elsewhere. Praful Hinge found himself back in the SRH side, in place of Harsh Dubey to give them an extra pace option. Hinge mimicked the Cummins line-and-length early on, and tempted Gill into a misjudged on-drive. In the final over of the powerplay, Jos Buttler realised he could not go big in the 'V', so he tried to scoop Hinge behind the wicket instead. All he managed was an edge to the keeper. Hinge's twin strikes consigned GT to 34 for 2, their lowest powerplay score this season. Bottom line: “Titans’ irrepressible new-ball attack outclassed Sunrisers’ marauding top-order”. Rabada broke the back in PP, Holder cleaned up middle overs. GT’s bowling depth – Rabada, Siraj, Holder, Prasidh, Rashid – made 169 look 220. At the end of a fast-bowling buffet, GT marched to their biggest victory in the IPL. Their W in the last match - a 77-run win against RR - had been their previous best. They finished this night on top of the table, suddenly the team to beat this season.