A comfortable victory for table-toppers Gujarat.

In today’s Indian Premier League (IPL) match, table-toppers Gujarat Titans secured their sixth win of the season.

They defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by 39 runs to move up to 12 points. Chasing a target of 199, Kolkata managed only 158 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in their allotted 20 overs.

Kolkata struggled early, scoring just 45 runs in the powerplay while losing 2 wickets. Opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz was dismissed for 1 run, while Sunil Narine was out for 27. Soon after, Venkatesh Iyer also fell for 14.

Captain Ajinkya Rahane scored a half-century before being dismissed as the fourth wicket. He hit 5 fours and 1 six in his 36-ball 50. At that stage, Kolkata had only managed 91 runs for the loss of 4 wickets.

After Rahane’s dismissal, no other batsmen could settle at the crease. Andre Russell scored 21, while Angkrish Raghuvanshi remained unbeaten on 27. In the bowling department, Prasidh Krishna and Rashid Khan picked up two wickets each.

Earlier, Kolkata won the toss and chose to field first. Gujarat made the most of the opportunity, dominating the KKR bowlers with a strong start.

They posted 198 for 2 in 20 overs, with openers Sai Sudharsan and captain Shubman Gill putting on a century stand for the first wicket.

These two — Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill — gave Gujarat a strong start by putting up a 114-run partnership in 12.2 overs. Sai was dismissed after scoring 52 runs off 36 balls. It was Andre Russell who broke the stand by getting Sai out.

After that, Jos Buttler joined Gill at the crease. Together, they added 58 runs for the second wicket, further pressuring the Kolkata bowlers.

Gill narrowly missed out on a century, falling 10 runs short. He played a brilliant knock, scoring 90 runs off 55 deliveries, including 10 fours and 3 sixes.

Jos Buttler remained unbeaten on 41 from 23 balls, while Shahrukh Khan added an unbeaten 11. For Kolkata, only two bowlers — Andre Russell and Vaibhav Arora — managed to take a wicket each. The other four bowlers went wicketless.

With this win, Gujarat has increased their lead over second-placed Delhi to 2 points. Delhi has played one game fewer and currently sits on 10 points from 7 matches. For Kolkata, this marked their fifth defeat of the season — they now have only 6 points from 8 games.