Gulte News
Gujarat Titans created history by winning the IPL trophy right in this maiden season. It defeated Rajasthan Royals by 7 wickets and chased the target of 131 runs in 18.1 overs. It was captain Hardik Pandya’s all-round performance (3/17, 34) that gave Gujarat this dominant victory in the finals. The team has been dominant throughout the tournament and continued the dominance in the final as well.
After winning the toss, Rajasthan elected to bat first. Openers Jos Buttler (39) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (22) gave a good start but their partnership was broken in the early stage by Yash Dayal. Later, Sanju Samson and Buttler built the innings at a good pace.
That’s when Hardik Pandya came into bowl and broke this dangerous partnership. After that, RR’s wickets started falling in quick succession. Along with Hardik, other bowlers like Sai Kishore (2/20), Rashid Khan (1/18) and Mohammed Shami (1/33) have bowled economical spells and picked up wickets at regular intervals. As a result, RR was restricted in scoring a big total. It was able to score 130/9 by the end of 20 overs.
GT got early setbacks while chasing this low total. Trent Boult’s sensational spell (4-1-14-1) in the powerplay never allowed GT batters to score big. Wriddhiman Saha and Mathew Wade were dismissed in less than 5 overs. That’s when Hardik Pandya and Shubman Gill (45*) played cautiously and built the innings carefully. They made a partnership of 63 runs for the third wicket.
RR’s trump card Yuzvendra Chahal (1/20) broke this partnership in the 14th over. However, RR failed to strike another blow in quick succession. David Miller (32*) and Gill finished off things and gave their team a comfortable victory with 11 balls remaining.
