More than winning the trophy on their first go on May 29, skipper Hardik Pandya feels proud of his Gujarat Titans side for “creating a legacy” and leading as a “right example” for teams setting up a goal and working together to achieve it.
Titans, one of the two new franchises along with Lucknow Super Giants, defeated the Rajasthan Royals on Sunday to bag their first-ever Indian Premier League title in front of a capacity crowd at the iconic new Ahmedabad stadium.
It was a culmination of over two months of hard work on the field, as the Titans stamped their authority in the first season and enjoyed a numero uno finish in the league stage with 10 wins before pulling off successive wins against RR in the Qualifier 1 and the final.
Ahead of the season, hardly anybody gave Titans a chance to pull off such a remarkably successful campaign. Led by an inexperienced captain and carrying a bowling-heavy unit, many felt they wouldn’t be able to sustain their run against a varied set of oppositions. But the Titans proved their doubters wrong with Hardik emerging as a capable skipper who led his team from the front.
“This is the right example for any team in the world. If you can play as a team and build a good unit with genuine people around, wonders can happen. I and Ashu pa (bowling coach Ashish Nehra), we like to play proper bowlers.
Batters can obviously chip in, but most of the time I have seen in T20 cricket – it’s a batter’s game but bowlers win you games,”
said Hardik at the season finale presentation ceremony after Titans overhauled Royals paltry 130/9 with seven wickets intact.
The Titans felt like a franchise bigger than a sum of its parts. They kept finding heroes from time to time and kept their noses ahead of the opponents. Hardik inspired his troops nicely by batting at No.3-4 and scoring 487 runs to top the Titans’ runs chart.
Reflective of a healthy batting unit, Shubman Gill (483) and David Miller (481) finished second and third in that table with a minimal difference from their captain’s tally. At the top, Wriddhiman Saha (317) produced some critical knocks as a powerplay aggressor, while Rahul Tewatia (217) aced the end-overs duties perfectly once again for his new franchise.
On the bowling front, Mohammad Shami (20 wickets) and Rashid Khan (19) emerged as the two stand-out performers for the Titans, with Lockie Ferguson (12) and Yash Dayal (11) also playing their part. Hardik, the fifth-bowler, rejuvenated himself by bowling full tilt and reserving his best for the final, where he delivered a spell of three for 17 off his four overs.
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Speaking further on the victory, Hardik deemed this one “very special” as he achieved a rare personal feat of winning each of the five IPL finals that he has been a part of, with four of those coming previously for Mumbai Indians.
The feelings were in contrast for opposition counterpart Sanju Samson, who, however, chose to look at the brighter side of Royals’ mighty impressive campaign till the final of the competition.
A resurgent Royals side finished second in the league stage and came one win short of reclaiming an IPL trophy for the first time since 2008.
“This season was really special for us. Last two-three seasons all the fans, everyone was having a really hard time. Good to give them some happy moments. Really proud of my team.
Great youngsters, great senior players. One off day today but really proud of my team. Right from the auctions we wanted to have quality bowlers, they win you tournaments.”
Samson said.
