All-round Hardik Pandya leads debutants Gujarat Titans to dream title

Gujarat Titans 133 for 3 (Gill 45*, Hardik 34, Boult 1-14) beat Rajasthan Royals 130 for 9 (Buttler 39, Hardik 3-17, Sai Kishore 2-20) by seven wickets

Captain Hardik Pandya starred with the ball and bat to lead Gujarat Titans to IPL glory, in front of a home crowd of over 100000 at the Narendra Modi Stadium. After losing the toss on the same pitch that was used for the second qualifier on Friday, Hardik ripped through Royals’ line-up by dismissing Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer in a spell of 4-0-17-3.

The damage proved irreparable, especially for a line-up that had R Ashwin, Riyan Parag, Trent Boult, Obed McCoy, Prasidh Krishna and Yuzvendra Chahal from Nos. 6 to 11.

Royals took out Wriddhiman Saha and Matthew Wade early in their defence of 130, but Hardik, the batter, stopped them in their tracks, with 34 off 30 balls. Chahal snagged Hardik in the 14th over, with Titans 45 away from victory, but Shubman Gill and David Miller coolly finished the job that Hardik had started in grand style.

The Royal slowdown

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Royals’ powerplay dasher, needed eight balls to get off the mark on Sunday. When Mohammed Shami erred full, Jaiswal pumped him down the ground and over extra-cover for boundaries. Yash Dayal, however, had him hauling a pull to deep square leg for 22 off 16 balls.

As for Buttler, he dawdled to 10 off 14 balls in the powerplay, and struggled to hit a higher gear throughout his 35-ball stay. The slowdown from the openers forced Samson to take risks at the other end. After hitting two fours in his first three balls, the second via a fumble, Samson shaped to line-up Hardik’s hard length, only to sky a catch to R Sai Kishore at backward point.

Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

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