Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya said that his bowlers had “conceded 15 extra runs” in the loss to Chennai Super Kings in Qualifier 1. Hardik Pandya added that GT bowlers gave away a few “soft balls” that costed them the match in Chepauk.
After being asked to bat first, CSK got another solid start from their openers, Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad, the pair putting up 87 runs in 10.3 overs on a surface that was gripping, holding, getting slower as the match progressed.
Gaikwad scored 60 runs while Conway scored 40. Cameos from Rahane, Rayudu, and Jadeja helped CSK reach a total of 172, which, Hardik Pandya said, was “15 runs” more than what he would have liked to stop Chennai on. Hardik was spot on in his assessment as GT lost the match by exactly 15 runs, and CSK proceeded to their 10th IPL final.
Hardik Pandya rued “basic errors” made by GT bowlers in loss vs CSK
At the post-match presentation, Hardik Pandya said: “We made basic errors and that costed us the game. The kind of bowlers we had, I felt we conceded 15 extra runs. A lot of things we did right. We bowled a couple of soft balls in between. We were executing our plans and then in between we gave some runs.”
In the chase, GT lost Saha in the third over and then Hardik Pandya in the 6th over. While Shubman Gill held his end, the other GT batters couldn’t support – Shanaka and Miller were next to go. And when Gill got out, in the 14th over for 42 runs, a victory for CSK side seemed inevitable. Some late hits from Rashid kept CSK alive till the penultimate over, but it only delayed the celebrations that followed once GT were bowled out on the last ball of the match.
While CSK reached their 10th IPL final, Gujarat Titans, the defending champions and the table-toppers, will get another chance to reach the final. They will face the winner of Eliminator, the match between Lucknow Super Giants and Mumbai Indians, in the Qualifier 2.
