The Gujarat Titans are now the champions of the 2022 IPL after beating the Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets in the final played at Ahmedabad, a stadium that saw a world-record 1,04,859 people attend the biggest match in League Cricket. Titans’ captain, Hardik Pandya, was the star of the night, leading from the front with the ball and the bat. In the process, he became the second-quickest captain to win the IPL in terms of the number of matches and the second-youngest captain as well. Mumbai Indians’ Rohit Sharma owns both the records.
Jaiswal’s edgy start
Against the Royal Challengers in Qualifier 2, Yashasvi Jaiswal was the one who set the tone for the chase with his quick start. However, Jaiswal looked a bit edgy in the Final, even slightly overawed by the occasion. It took him eight balls to get off the mark, but when he did, it kind of broke all the shackles.
It started in the third over, bowled by Mohammed Shami, where he took 13 runs off it. After a slow start, where he couldn’t buy a run in his first seven balls, Jaiswal scored 22 off the next eight. His scratchy inning was evident from the fact that he middled only 53% of his shots. Apart from a few balls that he left alone, Jaiswal was beaten on 33% of the balls that he faced, edging the other 6%. Little did anyone know that Jaiswal’s inning at the top was a mere sign of things to come for the Rajasthan Royals.
Captain leading from the front
When Hardik Pandya came on to bowl in the ninth over, the Royals were decently placed at 59-1. But what followed next was a spell players dream of – bowling their side to a near-certain victory even before their team bats. When Pandya finished his match-winning spell of 4-0-17-3, he had broken the entire batting backbone of RR.
In Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler and Shimron Hetmyer, not only did Pandya take out the three best batters of the opposition team, but he also got three of their top-four run-getters. Pandya’s success was built on bowling back-of-the-length balls with variation in his pace. All his wickets were off the balls bowled either on short of good length or the short length.
Pandya’s success was also because of his immaculate reading of the match and the pitch, as it took him only two balls into his spell to understand the ideal length on the Ahmedabad pitch. His game awareness came to the fore once again when he came out to bat with his team in a bit of a bother, losing two wickets in the Powerplay. When he eventually fell to Chahal’s wonderful leg-break, his innings of 34 off 30 had put GT firmly ahead.
Miller’s improved game against off-spin
One of the biggest factors in Gujarat’s title win has been the performance of David Miller in their middle order. The southpaw from South Africa had his best-ever IPL season, amassing 481 runs at a strike rate of 142.7 and an average of 68.7. One key reason behind these numbers is his batting against his usually negative matchup – right-arm off-spin bowlers.
Before this year’s IPL, Miller averaged 23.7 against the off-spinners, striking at just 103.9. However, this year, Miller was never dismissed by an off-spinner. He didn’t survive against them, he thrived! Miller scored 111 runs off 64 off-spinning deliveries, striking at 173.8. His dot ball% against the off-spinners was almost 50% less this year (18.8%), compared to 35.6% in the previous seasons.
Samson had saved Ravichandran Ashwin’s overs for Miller, but after running out of overs and options, Ashwin finally came on to bowl the 12th over, even with Miller yet to come. However, when Miller finally came to bat, he dominated Ashwin by scoring 11 runs off his five balls, once again, showing his drastically improved game against the off-spinners.
Both the captains were tactically brilliant in the Final, but Hardik Pandya stood up and led his team not just through his tactics but also through his performances, helping Gujarat Titans to their first-ever title in the debut season of the IPL.