Gujarat Titans 229 for 4 (Gill 84, Sai Sudharsan 55, Brijesh 2-47) beat Rajasthan Royals 152 (Jadeja, 38, Rashid 4-33, Holder 3-12) by 77 runs

Twenty-eight overs into the contest in Jaipur, Rajasthan Royals (RR) were keeping pace with Gujarat Titans (GT). They were 86 for 3 in seven overs, chasing 230. Dhruv Jurel looked like he had excised his slow-batting demons. He was on 24 off 9 and ready to go bigger. Then, Rashid Khan spun one past Jurel's slog to peg back his stumps. It was the first of his four wickets. On a night of a spin chokeholds by both RR and GT, Rashid's spell of 4 for 36 was the point of difference between both sides.

At the end of it all, GT zoomed up to second spot in the points table with 14 points. It was their fourth consecutive win, as they continued their late surge in this IPL.

Earlier in the evening, half-centuries from Shubman Gill and B Sai Sudharsan - and their 118-run opening partnership - headlined GT's biggest IPL score outside Ahmedabad. They had been greeted by an all-pink Jaipur. RR's jerseys were the same colour, in honour of their women's empowerment movement. By the end of the powerplay, Gill and Sudharsan couldn't have felt more at home themselves. They had raced away to 82 for 0, and alongside Rashid's spell, they headlined a 77-run win.

Wide and wider in the powerplay

Jofra Archer took 11 deliveries to get through the first over of the match. It featured nine extras and was the longest opening over in the history of the tournament. By the end of it, Gill and Sai Sudharsan - without taking any big risks - had raced away to 18 for no loss. This was the theme of the powerplay: the opening pair kept getting balls on their pads or bouncers shooting way over their heads. They played most of their shots in the 'V' down the ground. By the end of the first six, they were just 18 runs away from their ninth 100-plus partnership, the second-best tally in the IPL, just behind Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.

Punja and Jadeja choke the middle overs

Despite their big start, Gill and Sai Sudharsan slowed down in characteristic fashion. Both of them reached their fifties off 30 balls. Yash Raj Punja (1 for 37) and Ravindra Jadeja (1 for 34) did not find much turn off the surface, but bowling in tandem through the middle overs, they cut off the risk-free boundary options for the opening pair.

A leg injury while running between wickets affected Gill's running as well. Punja took out Sai Sudharsan for 55 off 36, holing out to long-on, and Jadeja speared in a delivery to Jos Buttler at 107kph to rush him on a drive straight to long-off.

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Washington, Tewatia give GT big finish

After GT's whirlwind start, 220 was a base expectation from their innings. By the end of the 19th over, they were on track to finish under it, stuck on 208 for 4. Brijesh Sharma had plucked out Jason Holder's wicket and given away just four runs in the 19th, varying his pace and bowling into the blockhole. However, his gold-dust over was reduced to a footnote when Tushar Deshpande missed his lines in the last over. Rahul Tewatia maneuvered around the crease to leather back-to-back sixes, before Washington Sundar hit one of his own to drag GT to 229 for 4.

Siraj outfoxes Sooryavanshi in the powerplay

It is the stuff of routine now. The bowler chugs in, bowls a perfectly okay delivery, and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi sends him into the stands first-ball. Saturday night was no different, as Sooryavanshi clobbered Mohammed Siraj across the line over the long-on boundary. Next ball, a Siraj yorker rifled towards the stumps, and Sooryavanshi inside-edged onto his foot and fell to the ground.

Sooryavanshi looked set for another big start, despite limping between wickets, blasting Siraj for three fours in four deliveries. On the fifth delivery, he was rushed into a hook off a fiery bouncer that carried to square leg. In the blink of an eye, Sooryavanshi went from zero to 16-ball 36, then from the middle to the dugout.

Siraj (1 for 55) and Kagiso Rabada (2 for 33) became the first pair of IPL bowlers to bowl through the powerplay four matches in a row. Jurel ventured down the track to plunder a 22-run over against Siraj before the powerplay ended. Rashid would pluck him out soon anyway.

Rashid kills off the chase

With Sooryavanshi and Jaiswal gone, the onus was on Jurel and Ravindra Jadeja - who clobbered six and four off his first two deliveries - to play against type and shift into fifth gear. But Rashid got the ball to jag and turn off a pitch like no other spinner on the night. He also bowled more legbreaks than googlies - a rarity for him - to keep the batters guessing.

Once Jurel perished, Donovan Ferreira saw the ball turn the other way, past an innocuous front-foot defence. Harsh Dubey soon went for another missed slog, Rashid's third consecutive dismissal to rattle the stumps. Rashid wore a wry smile when Jadeja swiped him over backward square leg for six in the 14th over. Next ball, Jadeja was trapped lbw in front of the stumps as the ball spun into his pads.

Holder soon mopped up the tail, taking the final three wickets in five deliveries and RR had lost their third game in four matches.