Sai Sudharsan’s fourth List-A century — and his second in the IPL — delivered Gujarat Titans a seven-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Tuesday, lifting them to third on the points table and giving the Orange Cap holder a 14-run cushion at the top of the run-scoring charts.

How the chase was built

Titans lost Shubman Gill in the third over for 9, but Sudharsan took the innings through with the calm of a batter who has been here before — which, statistically, he has. The 24-year-old now has 512 runs at an average of 56.8 and a strike rate of 148.4, numbers that put him in the top three openers in the league on every axis except boundary count, where he trails only Travis Head.

The decisive passage came in the 14th to 17th overs, when Royals captain Sanju Samson brought himself on and Avesh Khan back into the attack. Sudharsan took 19 off Khan’s over and 14 off Samson’s next, the kind of acceleration that takes a chase from “achievable” to “comfortable” in a single passage.

“He’s reading the situation without over-thinking it. The same shot in the same over against a different bowler might have been a single. Tonight he picked the right match-up three times in a row.”

What it means for the points table

Titans move to 12 points from 10 matches with a net run rate of +0.488, level on points with Mumbai Indians but ahead on the head-to-head tie-breaker. Royals stay eighth with 8 points and a net run rate that has slipped to -0.402, raising real questions about whether their death bowling can hold up against the top four in the back half of the season.

Fantasy implications

Sudharsan’s ownership rate in the major grand leagues has stayed below 28% through this purple patch, which makes him one of the highest-ceiling differential captains on the circuit. Pair him with Rashid Khan (3/24 tonight) and the Titans’ bowling unit has now conceded under 160 in three of their last four — the kind of consistency that points-table standings reward at the back end of the league stage.

What to watch next

Titans host Lucknow Super Giants on Friday; Royals travel to face Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Saturday. Both sides will need to manage workloads carefully — Yashasvi Jaiswal appeared to be carrying a quad twinge in the field late in the innings and is expected to undergo a precautionary scan on Wednesday morning.

By the numbers

Updated Tuesday 9:42 PM IST with post-match quotes and fantasy ownership data.