GT vs RR Review- Gujarat Titans are back to winning ways in the Indian Premier League after beating Rajasthan Royals convincingly by 37 runs. Sanju Samson finally won a toss and decided to send Gujarat to bat first. His team was without the leader of the bowling attack Trent Boult who missed this game due to injury. Boult’s presence was missed as Gujarat put up a big score of 192 on the board, courtesy of a terrific partnership by Hardik Pandya and Abhinav Manohar in the middle phase of the innings.
In reply, Jos Buttler started his fireworks right from the start and helped RR to reach 65 in the powerplay overs. But after his dismissal, Rajasthan never looked like chasing the target and eventually fall short by a big margin.
Let’s look at the talking points from the game –
World-class all-round show from Hardik Pandya
The Gujarat captain is making his mark in the IPL, not just with the captaincy but with the bat. Coming in at number 4, Hardik displayed another superb knock of unbeaten 87 off just 52 balls. He started slowly in the powerplay after the early dismissals of Matthew Wade, Shubman Gill and Vijay Shankar but later picked up his strike rate and ended up striking at 167. He also picked up the wicket of Jimmy Neesham and ran out RR skipper Sanju Samson. In the second innings, he looked like cramping a bit but Hardik says it was because of spending a bit longer at the crease than he used to.
“Always good to win. Just cramps. Not used to batting for so long. Gives me time though to calculate. Today I got the rhythm and planned my knock. It allows the others to play freely. I have done the other role where I have scored a 12-ball 30. Captaincy is always fun. Be the flagbearer of the team. The team is gelling well. I wanted all of us to be happy for each other’s happiness. That is working well for the team.”
Abhinav Manohar showing what he can do
The 27-year-old is proving himself to be a vital part of the Gujarat batting lineup. Abhinav is coming to bat ahead of David Miller in the line-up and that says how much trust the team has given him. He is certainly living up to the expectations with another brilliant knock of 28-ball 43. In his innings, he also smacked the likes of inform Yuzvendra Chahal for a six and a four.
Ravichandran Ashwin’s struggle continues
Not a great season going for veteran spinner Ravi Ashwin. One of the best in red-ball cricket, Ashwin is struggling to pick up wickets in the IPL as he has just got a single dismissal to his in 5 outings for the Royals. His economic rate is also touching the higher side which is a concern for Rajasthan.
Match winner-Lockie Ferguson
The kiwi speedster was off-colour in the last game which GT lost to SRH but came back in this match very strongly with another 3 wicket haul. He picked up the dangerous Jos Buttler to bring back his team in the game and finished the spell 3/23 in four overs.
