The new entrants Gujarat Titans (GT) leapfrogged Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the top of the Indian Premier League as captain Hardik Pandya starred in a comfortable 37-run win.
Things looked bleak for the Titans when they saw their top order dominated early on, but Hardik's magnificent 87 helped them to 192/4, before the Gujarat attack blitzed their rivals midway through the Royals innings.
Lockie Ferguson and Yash Dayal finished with three wickets apiece as the Royals could only muster 155/9 in reply, sending the Titans two points clear at the top of the IPL table.
Meanwhile, RR skipper Sanju Samson (11 off 11) rued the hapless loss as he said that had his side kept wickets in hand, the total was pretty chasable.
"I would like to give credit to Gujarat Titans' batters. Hardik played a very good innings, they played really well to get that score. If we had wickets in hand this was chasable I feel. We were almost there in terms of run rate, in the powerplay we had a better run rate actually, But we kept losing wickets. Freaky niggle last night in training, definitely missed him (Boult). Hopefully he will be back soon.
The Titans elected to bat after winning the toss but made a dreadful start when both Matthew Wade (12) and Vijay Shankar (2) went early on, the former being run out by Rassie van der Dussen and the latter caught by Sanju Samson.
They steadied themselves to reach 53 before Shubman Gill was dismissed for 11 in the sixth over, before captain Hardik, supported well by Abhinav Manohar (43) and David Miller (31 not out) dragged them back into contention with an outstanding batting display.
Hardik was undoubtedly the star of the show, his 87 off 52 balls almost single-handedly setting a difficult target of 192 as the Royals attack struggled in the absence of fast bowler Trent Boult.
Sanju was also effusive in praising Hardik. He said that Hardik had a really good day today as he batted, bowled and fielded well.
"He (Hardik) had a really good day today, batted, bowled and fielded well. I have played enough number of years in this league to understand that each game is crucial. Very important to learn and comeback stronger in the next game. I was doing No. 3 continuously till last season. So we decided to have that flexibility, come down at No. 4 or 5 or wherever the team needs me. Having someone like R Ashwin allows us to do that, Devdutt Padikkal batted 3 in the first three games. So it all depends on the combination we are playing," he further added.
Jos Buttler (52) drove Rajasthan to a decent start with the bat, hitting eight fours and three sixes either side of partner Devdutt Padikkal being dismissed for nought with the very first ball he faced.
Replacement Ravichandran Ashwin went for eight shortly after and the wickets began to tumble in quick fashion once Buttler was finally bowled out by Ferguson, with Samson (11), Van der Dussen (6), and Shimron Hetmyer (29) all walking for the addition of 60 runs. The below-par Royals eventually lost nine wickets without threatening the target of 193, as Ferguson and Dayal helped themselves to three dismissals each.\