Gujarat Titans won by 7 runs over Lucknow Super Giants in the 30th match of the IPL 2023 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on April 22. Gujarat Titans won the toss and opted to bat. Wriddhiman Saha scored 47 whereas Hardik Pandya hit 66 and helped the team to post 135 runs in 20 overs.
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While chasing, KL Rahul smashed 68 but he didn’t get much support from the other end. And, his efforts went in vain as they could only manage 128 runs in 20 overs, eventually losing the game as well.
Here is what the captains and the player of the match said after the game:
Mohit Sharma, Player of the Match, said as quoted by Cricbuzz: Nothing special, everything’s normal, as usual. I think I have been consistent. You need to focus and prepare in the same manner each and every time, that helps. You need to keep practising, just stick to the basics and try not to overthink. That belief factor was always there. Nehra adviced us to stick to our plans honestly. I tried to focus on executing my plans. Also tried that the batters couldn’t read what I was trying to bowl.
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Hardik Pandya said as quoted by Cricbuzz: Credit to the boys. We are a champion side, we won last year. You have to be satisfied with your results. The spirit and the atmosphere changed after getting wickets, that’s a very great feeling. A win like this can boost your confidence. I think the way the wicket was playing, we could have got 10 runs more. There was uncertainty. They bowled well and made our life difficult. Batters couldn’t get rhythm because of the wicket. During the strategic timeout we spoke about the set batter going for it towards the end. We were always chasing them, and never in it. When they needed 30 runs in 30 balls, I thought they were ahead. But when they required 27 in 4 overs, I thought they were under pressure. That’s where I thought we could be in the game. The way every bowler contributed, as a captain I couldn’t have asked for. The amount of cricket he (Mohit Sharma) has played, I don’t have to interfere. He made my life easy, he backed his plans and executed it. Shami and Mohit were tremendous, special mention to Jayant who was playing after a long time. Noor has some talent as well.
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KL Rahul said as quoted by Cricbuzz: I don’t know how it happened, but it has happened. I can’t put a finger on where it went wrong, but we lost 2 points today, this is cricket. I thought we were brilliant with the ball, 135 was 10 runs under par, the bowling was exceptional, we started well with the bat, but these things happen, we’ll have to take it on the chin. But still a long way to go, 8 points off 7 games, we were on the wrong side of the result today. We were well ahead in the game and I wasn’t really trying to bat deep, I still wanted to play my shots, take on the bowlers, but they bowled well in that 2-3 over period, by Noor and Jayant, we perhaps should have taken a few more chances with wickets in hand, they bowled decently, but I think we missed out on some boundary opportunities, the pressure got to us in the last 3-4 overs, we played well until then. They did bowl well though.