Mohali: Gujarat Titans (GT) got back to winning ways with a six-wicket victory over Punjab Kings (PBKS) after Mohit Sharma's excellent return to the IPL and Shubman Gill's 49-ball 67 here on Thursday.
Medium-pacer Mohit marked his comeback with figures of 2/18 as holders GT restricted PBKS to 153/8.
Playing in his first game in the league since 2020, Mohit was exceptional in the penultimate over, giving away just six runs.
When their turn to bat came, Gill led the way with his fine half-century as GT completed the chase of 154 in 19.5 overs.
It was the defending champions' third win from four games, while PBKS suffered their second straight loss.
Having done duty as the team's net bowler last season, Mohit, who has also played for the Indian team including in the World Cup, mixed his pace and varied his lengths well throughout his spell.
Later, the young Gill once again showed his class with a quality innings that contained seven fours and a six.
From GT's point of view, it was extremely important that Gill stayed on till the end, especially after the dismissal of captain Hardik Pandya with the team still needing 48 runs from 34 balls.
GT were off to a flyer and scored 56 in the six powerplay overs with the Gill going great guns.
Meanwhile, PBKS' lead pacer Kagiso Rabada became the fastest to 100 wickets in the IPL, when he had Wriddhiman Saha (30 off 19 balls) caught at deep square leg off a short ball.
The South Africa speedster took just 64 games to reach the landmark, six matches fewer than Lasith Malinga's 70.
Earlier, Matthew Short top-scored for PBKS with a 24-ball 36 but it was Shahrukh Khan's nine-ball 22, which helped the team cross 150.
Sent in to bat after the coin landed in favour of the returning GT skipper andya, PBKS lost Prabhsimran Singh off the second ball of the over when his attempted flick off a length ball from Mohammed Shami went straight to Rashid Khan at short midwicket.
Prabhsimran departed without scoring.
Short walked in at No. 3 and he got off the mark with a boundary, striking the ball through point. The next ball was short, and Short pulled the seasoned Indian seamer through the square leg region for another four.
Sharing the new ball with Shami, Joshua Little was welcomed with two boundaries by the in-form Shikhar Dhawan. While the first one was lofted over cover, Dhawan produced a delightful shot in the next ball, caressing the ball past mid-off in what was a high-class cover drive.
Australian Short, who has done well for Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League back home, took on Shami and hit him for back-to-back fours including an authoritative boundary through mid-off.
However, just when PBKS seemed to be putting GT under pressure Little gave his team a huge breakthrough, dismissing the dangerous Dhawan (8) who came down the track to play the lofted shot, only to end up giving a catch to Alzarri Joseph.
GT got another big wicket when the ever-reliable Rashid (1/26 in 4 overs) foxed a well-settled Short with a googly with PBKS's score reading 55/3 in the seventh over.
Having struck a flurry of fours and a massive six off Joseph, Short had settled down nicely but looked clueless when Rashid decided to bowl the wrong'un.
Short's dismissal set PBKS back, and it became trickier when Jitesh Sharma (25 off 23 balls) was sent back by Mohit, thanks to a smart piece of work by Saha behind the wickets.
Sam Curran (22) struck a much-needed six -- a big maximum over deep midwicket after star leg-spinner Rashid missed his length.
Sri Lankan Bhanuka Rajapaksa did not convince in his 26-ball 20.
Shahrukh Khan smashed the first ball he faced for a six over deep midwicket, before picking up another maximum off Shami.
His cameo lifted them to 153/8, but it was at least 15-20 runs short.
