It was a huge day For Gujarat Titans and Hardik Pandya who had won the maiden IPL trophy by beating Rajasthan Royals in the final. Pandya, who was under pressure to perform, showed his all-around skills throughout the season; on some occasions, he failed to bowl his four overs which raised doubts on his India career. Nonetheless, he batted brilliantly on all games, helping his team gain the upper hand. However, in the final, Pandya the bowler came to the party as he went onto take three crucial wickets of Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, and Shimron Hetmyer.
All-Round Hardik Pandya Leads Gujarat Titans to IPL 2022 Title in Debut Season
All in all, the night of March 29 will be very memorable for Pandya and his wife Natasa Stankovic who was in tears. She started crying the moment he saw his husband and hugged him. Pandya, realizing that she is sobbing, comforted her. The video of this whole incident is going viral.
— Ashok (@Ashok94540994) May 29, 2022
Pandya will go down in history of IPL as the only captain to win the trophy with a new franchise in its first year. No team has ever done that in IPL. Only Gujarat Lions did well to reach the playoffs in 2016—debut year. Meanwhile, MS Dhoni’s Rising Pune Supergiants reached finals only to lose it to Mumbai Indians in 2017.
“This title is going to be a special one because we talked about creating a legacy. The coming generations will talk about it,” Hardik said after the match.
“Everyone will remember this was the team who started this journey and to win the championship first year is very special.”
The Gujarat Titans’ triumphant skipper said he knew he was going to bat at number four for the first-timers after they got done with the mega auction ahead of IPL-15.
“When the auction finished, I knew I would have to bat at No. 4,” Hardik said at the presentation ceremony.
Hardik has won four IPL titles with Mumbai Indians.
Gujarat’s highly-rated bowling attack, led by skipper Hardik (3/17) himself, limited a formidable Rajasthan Royals batting unit to 130 for nine after losing the toss.
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