GT captain Hardik Pandya had pulled out in between his third over and went back to the dugout after picking up a niggle during the clash against RR in IPL 2022 on Thursday.
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Hardik Pandya had a near-perfect outing while leading GT in the match against RR in the IPL 2022 at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai on Thursday.
The Gujarat Titans captain, adjudged, the man-of-the-match for his all-round display scored an unbeaten 87 off 52 deliveries with the bat, pulled off a sensational run out of rival captain Sanju Samson and picked up a wicket before he had to leave the field while bowling his third over due to a niggle.
The live telecast showed that Pandya was addressed by the team physio and seemingly looked uncomfortable with his right thigh. He, however, cleared the air on his situation in the post-match interview after the Titans’ clinched a comfortable 37-run victory to move at the top spot.
“Always good to win. It is 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 12 balls 30,” Hardik Pandya said at the post-match interview.
Pandya looks like a better version of himself as a captain. His leadership skills have been quite evident and are producing a good streak of results for the Ahmedabad-franchise.
“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,” he added.
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Samson believed that his team could have chased down the target of 193 runs with wickets in hand. He, however, applauded Pandya for his terrific day on the field and said that his side needs to comeback stronger.
“You can say that (if Gurajat got 10-15 extra runs). But I would like to give credit to their batters. Hardik played a very good innings, they played really well to get that score. If we had wickets in hand this was chasable I feel. We were almost there in terms of run rate, in the powerplay we had a better run rate actually, But we kept losing wickets. Freaky niggle last night in training, definitely missed him (Boult). Hopefully he will be back soon,” Samson said.
“He (Hardik) had a really good day today, batted, bowled and fielded well. I have played enough number of years in this league to understand that each game is crucial. Very important to learn and comeback stronger in the next game. I was doing No. 3 continuously till last season. So we decided to have that flexibility, come down at No. 4 or 5 or wherever the team needs me. Having someone like R Ashwin allows us to do that, Devdutt Padikkal batted 3 in the first three games. So it all depends on the combination we are playing,” he added.
GT currently sit top at the points table with eight points from five matches.
