Former India player Aakash Chopra held Sherfane Rutherford responsible for Gujarat Titans’ 11-run defeat against Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League 2025. The West Indies star scored 46 runs off 28 balls, with the help of 4 fours and 3 sixes, but a better effort was needed from him, considering the required run rate in a chase of 244 runs.

He was an impact sub but kept missing full tosses. The southpaw failed to connect the deliveries of Punjab Kings’ impact sub Vijaykumar Vyshak.

Vijaykumar kept the ball wide outside of the off stump in front of Sherfane, who looked clueless.

Although he hit some big shots in the end, it was too late by then. His struggle in the middle also resulted in the dismissal of Jos Buttler, who was left with no choice but to look for fours and sixes. There was a time in the last phase of the match when Gujarat Titans couldn’t hit a boundary for 21 balls, and the reason was Sherfane Rutherford.

“How to look at Rutherford’s innings? He scored 46 runs off 28 balls, which looks fine if you don’t take the actual picture into consideration. But he missed a lot of balls, which proved costly in the end.

The dot deliveries cost GT big time. He couldn’t connect the ball,” Aakash Chopra said on Star Sports.

Shreyas Iyer’s 97 runs off 42 balls took Punjab to 243/5. He was supported by Priyansh Arya (47 off 23) and Shashank Singh (44* off 16).

Gujarat was in the game for a long time, but the brilliant bowling by Vijaykumar in the death overs put them out of the contest.

Sai Sudharsan (74 off 41), Jos Buttler (54 off 33), Sherfane Rutherford (46 off 28), and Shubman Gill (33 off 14) gave their all, but PBKS won the game by 11 runs.