It has been a fairytale of a season for Gujarat Titans as the new bees win the IPL in their first campaign beating Rajasthan Royals in the final. It came out to be a one-sided contest in the end at Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad in front of over a hundred thousand people. Hardik Pandya led his side from the front and delivered a match-winning performance with both bat and ball to earn Gujarat their maiden title.

It is the first time that a home captain of a franchise won the final playing at the home stadium as Hardik Pandya is from Gujarat. Before this season, Hardik played in four IPL finals with Mumbai Indians and won every time. The Surat born all-rounder is now sitting in a special list of cricketers with the most number of IPL trophies with Ambati Rayudu and Kiron Pollard alongside him in the list with 5. Only Rohit Sharma is ahead of the pack with 6 titles.

The Comments By Hardik Pandya After The GT Vs RR Match

No one literally expected the 28-year-old flamboyant star to be as good as he was as skipper of the Gujarat Titans and now he is a serious contender to become the next India captain for India in the limited over format. In the previous title-winning campaigns Hardik was seriously good with both bat and ball for MI, where his numbers improved every year. This season we saw a different class from the man which is his outstanding leadership skills.

Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to have batted first. Despite having a good start, the Royals kept losing wickets at regular intervals, most of them were soft dismissals. After putting only 130 on the board, the result was all but decided at the halfway mark. GT chased it very comfortably in the end with Shubman Gill remained not out on 45 and winning it by hitting a six. Now 5 times IPL winner, the first time as captain, Hardik Pandya said that this was a bit special.

“Obviously I count myself lucky. Have been in five finals, and have won five times, so it is very exciting,” Pandya said at the post-match presentation.”

“This is going to be a very special one because we spoke about creating a legacy and making sure that in generations to come everyone will remember this is the team that started this journey. To win the championship in the first year is very special.”

Let us look at the top talking points from the GT Vs RR final-

Rajasthan’s over-reliance on Buttler cost them in the final

 Having both Orange cap holder and Purple cap holder in the team, Rajasthan was a team to beat in the final. But Gujarat showed that it is a team game and all should perform to bring success. Rajasthan’s batting has been overly reliant on Jos Buttler in the whole tournament. Without those 863 runs from Buttler, Royals’ batting stats have not been good enough and it is once again got proved in the final. It was Buttler once again their highest scorer (39) by some distance and his dismissal in the 13^th over changed the game towards GT.

Hardik led from the front 

Famously called Papa Pandya by the fans, Hardik delivered on the big stage for his team once again. A true captain’s performance with incredible bowling figures of 3/17 and an anchoring knock of 34 off 30 alongside terrific leadership in the field, Hardik won GT the final and became the man of the match. The 28-year-old all-rounder was in his prime best to dismiss Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer, i.e. literally the RR batting mainstay in his four overs to push Royals to back foot single-handedly. This is the kind of influential performance Rajasthan were hoping for from their skipper Sanju Samson but unfortunately, it did not come when it mattered most.

Shubman Gill’s responsible knock 

There have been questions on his strike rate, but this time Gill showed what it means to stay at the crease and hold one side to build match-winning partnerships. Coming out to chase only 131, GT lost two wickets early. Gill and Pandya remained cool and put up 63 runs from 9 overs to ensure the team reaches the winning mark comfortably. Shubman finished the game hitting a six to remain unbeaten on 45 from 43 balls.