Kolkata: It's turning into a template now: Score 200-plus, stick to the good lengths and let the asking rate do the rest. Only the process was different this time.

The outfield wasn't as small as Eden Gardens, the pitch wasn't playing as well as Mullanpur, and Jofra Archer was bending his back to put some serious pace behind the ball. So, Gujarat Titans bided their time through two steady partnerships before Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan delivered in double quick time to set Rajasthan Royals an imposing 218 to chase for victory. RR lost by 58 runs.

Shimron Hetmyer showed heart with a sparkling 32-ball 52 but this was a chase that never really got off for the Royals. Mohammed Siraj sprayed the ball around in the opening over before Arshad Khan got Yashasvi Jaiswal to chase a ball angling away. Playing far from his body, Jaiswal connected but Rashid didn't have to move much to catch him at deep backward point. Next over, it was Siraj's turn to test the outfielder, and the ball went straight to Kulwant Khejroliya - Impact sub for Sherfane Rutherford - at deep third after Nitish Rana was cramped for his ramp shot. Two down for 12, Royals had no choice but to play their shots.

Sanju Samson and Riyan Parag were still in the middle but Titans kept chipping away. First, Parag was caught behind trying to open the face of his bat to a yorker-length ball from Khejroliya. Then Rashid came in the eighth over and straightaway dismissed Dhruv Jurel, leaving Samson an increasingly challenging job of keeping up with the chase while ensuring no more wickets were lost. He succeeded for five overs, till Prasidh Krishna used his height to bounce out Samson, getting him caught at short third. Hetmyer was connecting well but he never had the maturity to shoulder a chase of this magnitude.

At the core of this win-Titans' fourth on the trot-was Sai Sudharsan's stabilising 53-ball 82 after Archer ripped through Shubman Gill's stumps with a 147-kph delivery that shaped back into him on pitching. Clearly beaten by pace, the dismissal looked uglier with the yawning gap between bat and pad. Mixing his lengths but keeping up his pace, Archer was really making a statement. And barring a cracking cover drive from Jos Buttler, Gujarat Titans had really no answer to Archer's pace.

Sudharsan's presence was reassuring though, this being the ground where he averages the most in IPL. He went on the offensive against Tushar Deshpande, taking 18 runs off his over before Buttler carted Fazalhaq Farooqi and Maheesh Theekshana for two fours in consecutive overs. But once Theekshana dismissed Buttler leg before - putting an end to a promising 80-run stand - Sudharsan went into anchor mode. Which, thankfully for Titans, didn't affect the run rate because by then Shahrukh had entered the stage and was going for his shots. Farooqi went for consecutive fours before Shahrukh turned to Theekshana, muscling 14 runs in three hits to accelerate the run rate.

Royals had Sandeep Sharma though and he was pressed into service in the 15th over. He conceded five runs, the scare worked, prompting Shahrukh to make up for that over by going after Theekshana. He was stumped after missing a delivery fired wide of off-stump. Titans' batting depth came to the fore here, with Rahul Tewatia shoring up the lower order as Sudharshan started taking on Sharma, slicing him for six before lifting him over covers for four. Titans had got into a groove by then as Tewatia, followed by Rashid, found their range after Sudharsan's dismissal. Five overs is all that it took for Titans to undo the initial setback triggered by Archer and fuel a late uprising as they added 72 runs to run away with the game.

Brief Scores:

GT 217/6 (S Sudharsan 82, J Buttler 36, S Khan 36, M Theekshana 54); RR 159 in 19.2 overs (S Samson 41, S Hetmyer 52, P Krishna 3/24). GT won by 58 runs