Twenty-four minutes into the Saturday night IPL fixture at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, the game had already appeared to have swung decisively in the direction of Royal Challengers Bengaluru. This may seem like a post-facto oversimplification, but at the end of the game's first PowerPlay, Gujarat Titans had plodded along to 23, having lost more wickets (3) than they'd hit boundaries (2) in the phase. The home team's fast bowlers, Mohammed Siraj in particular, were quick on the uptake and expertly exploited the zip, movement as well as bounce accorded by the conditions. Even so, there was no credence to believe that the venue that reclaimed the record for the highest T20 score would also see the lowest PowerPlay score of the season in its very next game. Unless one was paying close attention to the Titans' PowerPlay patterns. Even before this game, they were the slowest scoring team in the first six overs and the only team in the competition with percentage of balls hit for boundaries under 20 in the PowerPlay. These statistics were posed to Naeem Amin, the team's assistant coach, on the eve of the match. "It's not a huge concern for us," Amin said. "Having Wriddhi [Wriddhiman Saha], we all know the kind of player he is. I don't really need to, especially you guys, educate about Shubman [Gill]... we all know what his abilities are. It's just a matter of us really playing that pace we're looking for. Hopefully, we'll make 300 as everybody is talking about. But we'll be there and thereabouts on a ground like this." Now, there is no need for a member of the coaching staff to make a pre-match admission in the media about his team's specific weaknesses. But when the numbers offer a damning verdict as Titans' do, then there may be cause for concern, and even change: in approach and personnel. As it turned out, Saha retained his spot alongside his captain following a lengthy net session on the eve of the match. And the pair of them combined to start this game with six defensive responses in a one-run opening over of the match: the only one bowled by a spinner - Swapnil Singh - in the PowerPlay. Saha fell midway through the next over, edging a Siraj delivery to the 'keeper. It has been that kind of an unforgiving season for the veteran, whose work ethic belies his 39-year-old frame but whose returns amplify the changing seasons narrative in the IPL. He was here playing in IPL's debut game in 2008. He was here scoring an IPL final century in 2014. Ten years on a seven-ball 1 left him with a season batting average of 17.0. Of the 21 players who have opened in at least five matches this season, only Ajinkya Rahane (16.0) has a lower average. Saha, the T20 batter, has never been about the average. He came into the season with a career IPL PowerPlay strike-rate of 133.65. Chris Gayle, the gold standard for T20 batting, struck at 134.75 in the first six overs. Saha's modus operandi, since a return to opening late in the 2020 season for a Sunrisers Hyderabad side seeking a different balance to their overseas combination, has been to clear the in-field during the fielding restrictions, make a rapid beginning and pass on the baton to the power players. In 2022, his signing by the Gujarat Titans seemed something like an afterthought by a first-time franchise that had left getting a wicket-keeper until very late. But as with their other moves, this too proved to be astute. Saha came in for Matthew Wade in the sixth game, allowed Titans to bring in another overseas bowler, and reprised his role as PowerPlay disruptor in a team laden with middle-order hitting might. In a career marked by waiting and being second-choice to MS Dhoni, Saha found himself in a somewhat strange situation of remaining Titans' first-choice in his 17th season. This was down to an injury to Robin Minz, the 'keeper Titans had signed for INR 3.6 crores at the 2024 auction. And as it turned out, Saha's downturn coincided with Gill's dip at the worst possible juncture for the Titans management, who have been busy plugging other gaping holes like the loss of their captain - an Indian seam-bowling all-rounder - and their ace fast bowler. That IPL 2024 has seen the biggest batting leap in years has only served to magnify Titans' problems. While they've been going at a rate of 7.54 in the first six overs, the league's average for the season is up at 9.45. Where GT are scoring an average of 45 runs with the field up, SRH have pushed the bar up to a rate of 11.21 with an average score of 67. The Titans were never the fastest scoring team in the PowerPlays even during their two trips to the final, scoring at 7.70 and 8.70, the rise in the second a function of both Gill and Saha enjoying career-best returns. While the PowerPlay is just a third of a T20 innings, it is often the differentiator in games. Until this year, the Titans covered up in the remainder of the game with their excellent bowling attack and their potent bunch of finishers. But while they've moved backwards with their returns at the top, the rest of the league has raced ahead, widening the chasm beyond any cover-up possibilities. Nothing underscores their stasis as these back-to-back games against RCB, who incidentally made a concerted effort to bat more dynamically midway through their own floundering season. In last week's game in Ahmedabad, Titans' score of 200/3 (42/1 after six overs) was overhauled in 16 overs. In Bengaluru, RCB's openers, Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis, smashed 92 in the PowerPlay and effectively killed the chase as well as Titans' fading hopes of a finals three-peat. However, unless CSK go on to win this season, the Titans will undoubtedly be remembered as the team of this cycle. They're still only three years old in the IPL but as this game and the season has shown, the competition waits for no one. And sometimes, 24 minutes are enough to show up glaring deficiencies.