Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya looked visibly upset against their star pacer Mohammad Shami, as he was hit for two consecutive boundaries in the penultimate over of the match by Ravichandran Ashwin. The 32-year-old gave away 16 runs in the 19th over which was not well-received by his skipper.
Though, Mohammad Shami was the pick of the bowler for Gujarat Titans as he conceded only 9 runs in his first three overs picking up the important wicket of their star batter Jos Buttler. With 23 runs to defend in the final two overs, the GT pacer would not execute his plan in the 19th overs, though he picked up 2 wickets in the over.
Gujarat Titans Skipper Hardik Pandya was seen animated throughout the match, giving a cold stare to the senior pacer Mohammad Shami for conceding back-to-back boundaries to Ravichandran Ashwin before dismissing him on the third ball. Ashwin made a quick impact with 10 (3) which tilted the game in favour of the Sanju Samson-led side.
Coming into the match, Gujarat Titans had a good start to the innings with Shubman Gill continuing his fine form in the top of the order and had a decent partnership in the middle orders alongside Sai Sudharsan and their skipper Hardik Pandya in the middle orders.
The Indian opener could not accelerate at the end of the innings as he was dismissed by Sandeep Sharma in the 16th over. David Miller 46 (30) and Abhinav Manohar 27 (13) played a brilliant cameo at the end of the innings to post a total of 177-7 at the end of 20 overs for the defending champions.
With 178 runs to chase against Hardik Pandya’s team, Rajasthan Royals had a disastrous start to the innings as they lost their openers inside the power play, with their impact player Devdutt Padikkal forming a partnership alongside their Skipper Sanju Samson to take their team out of the trouble.
The Rajasthan Royals skipper had a terrific outing with the bat as struck 60 runs off just 32 balls to set up perfect for their finisher Shimron Hetmyer 56* (26) to complete the chase. The West Indian batted beautifully and held his nerve in the final few overs to help his team cross the line with 4 balls to spare.
This Is One More Lesson For Us – Hardik Pandya
Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya believes his team can learn a lot of lessons from this kind of game and added that it is a long tournament and urged his team to work on the process and play good cricket in the forthcoming games.
“That’s the beauty about this game. The game is never over. That was the message to the boys as well. The game is never over until it’s over. So I think this is one more lesson for us,” Hardik Pandya said.
Gujarat Titans will be up against Lucknow Super Giants in their 6th match of the league stage on April 22 in Ekana Stadium, Lucknow.