Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya struck in his first over against the Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur, taking the big wicket of the dangerous Jos Buttler. However, it was after some drama as the RR opener cracked Pandya for a couple of delicious boundaries.
The mouth-watering clash was built up nicely with two strong teams holding the 1st and 4th position in the points table and, lest anyone forgets, the finalists of the last season.
It was the GT captain, then, who got the upper hand for his side and dismissed the mighty Buttler early in the innings after Sanju Samson, the RR captain, had won the toss and elected to bat first.
Jos Buttler hits Hardik Pandya for two fours, bowler responds with a brilliant wicket-taking ball
In what was a thrilling 3-ball sequence, GT Skipper had the last laugh after Buttler struck him for two consecutive fours on the leg-side. The GT captain made the mistake of drifting onto Buttler’s pads and the RR opener flicked him for fours, one to the right of mid-on and the second to the left of fine leg.
He corrected himself immediately – back of length outside the off-stump and seaming away just a little paid – and got the rewards: Buttler went for a backfoot drive but managed thick edge. There was a first slip positioned, but the fall flew straight to the short thirdman where Mohit Sharma took an easy catch.
You can watch this brilliant battle between Hardik Pandya and Jos Buttler here:
Meanwhile, RR’s batting is floundering at their home ground on a two-paced deck, and, at the time of writing, they are 87/6 after 13 overs.
Teams:
Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Wriddhiman Saha(w), Hardik Pandya(c), Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohit Sharma, Noor Ahmad, Mohammed Shami, Joshua Little
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Adam Zampa, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal
