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David Miller’s phenomenal finishing act guided Gujarat Titans (GT) to the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 final in their debut season. Miller mastered the run chase and hit three consecutive to finish off the run chase and hand Titans a seven-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals (RR) with three balls to spare at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
Big hits in powerplay overs
Trent Boult struck early with the new ball with the wicket of opener Wriddhiman Saha. Similar to Royals, the wicket did not have an effect on Titans' scoring rate in powerplay overs. Matthew Wade and Shubman Gill hammered Titans during fielding restrictions and posted 64/1.
Gill-Wade partnership
It seemed like the partnership between Wade and Gill will take the game way from Titans but the opener became victim to a terrible mix-up. Gill got run out in an attempt to take a second run. Wade's late call left Gill high and dry. He scored 35 runs from 21 deliveries including five fours and one six.
In the 10th over, Wade got out as well and wasted a perfect start. The Australian wicketkeeper-batter scored 35 runs off 30 deliveries which is his highest IPL score. He pulled a delivery from Obed McCoy but got caught at the boundary by Buttler.
Miller-Pandya partnership
Skipper Pandya and Miller took charge of the run chase at the halfway stage. The South African batter started accelerating in the last five overs. He did not even let Yuzvendra Chahal dominate and hit him for a humongous six in the 18th over.
The GT skipper looked in good touch right from the start whereas Miller took his time to settle at the crease. Till the 13th over, Miller had scored just nine runs from 13 deliveries. After getting hammered for boundaries, McCoy bowled a brilliant penultimate over conceding just seven runs. Meanwhile, Miller reached his half-century from 35 deliveries.
Hat-trick of sixes
Prasidh Krishna needed to defend 16 runs in the last over. Miller started off with a six as Krishna tried to bowl it full. Krishna followed it up with a similar delivery but Miller backed away and hit it over the leg side boundary again. Krishna came from around the wicket but Miller hammered third consecutive six to win the match for Titans with three balls to spare.
The Proteas batter remained unbeaten for 68 off 38 deliveries including three fours and five sixes. On the other end, Pandya remained unbeaten for 40 off 27 deliveries including five boundaries. The two batters shared an unbeaten 106-run partnership for the fourth wicket.
Ultra-aggressive Samson
Batting first, Yashasvi Jaiswal succumbed to dot ball pressure and lost his wicket to Yash Dayal after scoring three runs from eight deliveries. Buttler scored barely at run-a-ball while skipper Sanju Samson went ballistic in the powerplay overs. After the fielding restrictions, Royals had 55/1 on the board with Samson batting on 13-ball 30.
Samson continued to attack but missed his half-century and got out just before the halfway mark of the innings. Samson scored 47 runs from 26 deliveries including five fours and three sixes.
Quiet middle overs
While Buttler struggled for boundaries, Devdutt Padikkal took on Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore and hit him for a six and two boundaries. In the 15th over, Pandya introduced himself into the attack and got the wicket of Padikkal. The left-handed batter scored 28 runs from 20 deliveries.
Meanwhile, Rashid bowled at his best and conceded just 15 runs in his quota of four overs. After seeing out Rashid, Buttler went on an all out attack starting with left-arm pacer Dayal. The English batter reached his half-century with a boundary in the 17th over. He took 42 deliveries to reach the milestone.
Buttler makes up for dot balls
On the other end, Shimron Hetmyer failed to get going. Buttler made Titans pay for dropping his catches and punished Alzarri Joseph, Shami and Dayal in the slog overs. He got out off the final delivery after scoring 89 runs from 56 deliveries including 12 fours and two sixes. However, Dayal bowled a no ball followed by a wide. Ashwin got a couple of runs off the final ball and helped RR post 188/6.
