IPL 2022: Hardik Pandya led his side - Gujarat Titans - to a comfortable victory against Rajasthan Royals in Match 24 of the Indian Premier League season 15. This was GT's fourth win in the five games they have played so far. With this win, Gujarat hastaken the top spot of the league surpassing Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
Hardik Pandya was the architect of GT's innings. He did not put a foot wrong after losing three wickets and scored a 52-ball 87 not out, which include four sixes and eight boundaries. Put into bat first by Rajasthan, Gujarat had a decent start but they had lost three early wickets. The score was 53/3 in the powerplay.
Partnerships with Abhinav Manohar (43 off 28) and David Miller (31* off 14) with Hardik saw the team's score go beyond 190 as 54 runs were scored in the last four overs.
IPL Points Table (As of April 15, 2022)
In the bowling department, Chahal and Ashwin were the pick of the bowlers taking one wicket each.
When Rajasthan came on to bat, Jos Buttler thrashed the Gujarat pacers, especially Mohammed Shami. Despite losing Padikkal early, GT did not look troubled as they had Lockie Ferguson and Rashid Khan to operate in the middle overs. Lockie Ferguson even picked three wickets.
Rashid and Ferguson combined bowled eight overs and gave away just 47 runs. There was no resistance shown by RR batsmen after Buttler's wicket, and the GT eventually won by 37 runs.