Captain, Hardik Pandya batted and bowled outstandingly to lead Gujarat Titans to the Indian Premier League 2022 Cricket title with a 7-wicket victory over Rajasthan
Royals in front of a home crowd of over 100,000 in Ahmedabad, India yesterday.
After losing the toss, Hardik ripped through Rajasthan Royals’ batting by dismissing Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer in a spell of 4 overs in which he took 3 wickets for 17 runs.
The damage proved irreparable, especially for a thin batting line-up that had bowlers, Ravichandran Ashwin, Riyan Parag, Trent Boult, Obed McCoy, Prasidh Krishna, and Yuzvendra Chahal from numbers 6 to 11.
Rajasthan Royals dismissed Wriddhiman Saha and Matthew Wade early in their defence of 130, but Hardik stopped them in their tracks, with 34 off 30 balls. Chahal claimed the wicket of Hardik in the 14th over, with Gujarat Titans 45 runs away from victory. Shubman Gill and David Miller then coolly finished the job that Hardik had started in grand style.
Hardik, the captain, didn’t miss a beat either. Once the left-handed pair of Devdutt Padikkal and Shimron Hetmyer were dismissed, Hardik introduced left-arm, leg-spinner, Ravisrinivassan Kishore into the attack to bowl the 16th and 18th overs. He responded with the wickets of Ashwin and Boult.
The final scores: Rajasthan Royals 130-9 off 20 overs (Jos Butler 39, Hardik Pandya 3-17, Ravisrinivassan Kishore 2-20), Gujarat Titans 133-3 off 18.1 overs (Shubman Gill 45 not out, Dardik Pandya 34, David Miller 32 not out). Gujarat Titans won by 7 wickets.
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