Gujarat Titans captain Hardik Pandya stated after his side’s emphatic 34-run victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Monday in Ahmedabad that his club “rightly deserves” a spot in the Indian Premier League play-offs.
Despite a late recovery by SRH’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar (5/30), Shubman Gill led GT to a total of 188 for nine with a 101-run innings off only 58 balls, which was his first IPL century.
As a response, SRH were held to 154 for nine runs as GT became the season’s first team to qualify for the playoffs.
“The lads should be quite proud of themselves for making the playoffs twice in a row. At the post-game presentation, Hardik remarked, “The lads put their hands up and in difficult moments, and we properly earned the playoff position.
Expectations would exist, but I felt it was crucial to concentrate on the group. We checked off a lot of positive boxes and made a lot of mistakes, but we stayed in the game and tried to be reliable, he said.
The 147-run partnership between Gill and Sai Sudharsan (47 off 36 balls), which was squandered by the other batsmen, provided the groundwork for a substantial total. However, Mohammed Shami (4/21) and Mohit Sharma (4/28) excelled with the ball to end SRH’s effort.
Hardik referred to himself as a bowler’s captain after being moved by their effort.
“I have a strong affection for bowlers. Sometimes hitters grab all the glory, but I’ll always be the captain of the bowlers and make sure they receive the recognition they so well deserve, said Hardik.
Man-of-the-match Gill reflected on his IPL debut against SRH and claimed it has gone full circle for him.
“I played SRH in my IPL debut, and I just hit 100 against them. Very satisfied. It has completed the circle. This season, perhaps, I’ll score more hundreds,” stated Gill.
“I don’t tend to spend too much time thinking about my last outings. The emphasis is on what is required right now. Because he is a childhood buddy, hitting Abhishek (Sharma) for a six felt the most fulfilling.
SRH captain Aiden Markram said that his team would compete for pride in its last two games despite not being considered for a spot in the play-offs.
We have a lot of pride to play for. If permitted, we’ll attempt to provide some possibilities. Although it would be fantastic to end the tournament in a positive mood, this year we haven’t performed well enough, according to Markram.
“When a team is down one on the back end, one of two things may happen. Breaking the alliance was crucial, and Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar) took care of it for us. He has been excellent for both Nattu (T Natarajan) and ourselves.