Rajasthan Royals (RR) registered a convincing three-wicket win over the defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on April 17 (Sunday). Chasing a target of 178 runs, RR rode on captain Sanju Samson's flawless knock of 60 runs off 32 balls and Shimron Hetmyer's 56 not out off 26 balls as the franchise finally ended their jinx against the defending champions.
Rajasthan needed seven runs off the last over and GT captain Hardik Pandya turned to his overseas spinner Noor Ahmad. Hetmyer displayed great composure and executed his game plan perfectly. The explosive batter took a double on the first delivery of the over and then finished the job with a six on the next ball.
Hardik explained the logic behind asking Noor to bowl the last over.
"He's someone who's difficult to pick, got us the big breakthrough but the other bowlers didn't execute. Body is good, everything is good. It's a very long tournament. A lot of matches left, we still need to play a lot of group cricket even if we had won today," said Pandya after the game.
Hetmyer played a spectacular innings and took his team to the promised land. During his thunderous knock, Hetmyer struck two fours and five sixes. He was awarded the Man of the Match award for forking out a game-defining performance with the bat. After the game, Hetmyer admitted that he liked the match-up against a spinner in the last over of the match.
"I was pretty happy to be honest, to be facing (spinner in last over). I was just focused on getting a double off the first ball and then see what happens after that," he added.
Hardik reflected on his team's batting performance and said that they should have scored somewhere in the range of 200 runs.
"I felt short. After I got out, they bowled a couple of good overs, but we should have gone a little harder and got to 200. We did cover it well but when I was watching from outside, I did feel that we were 10 runs maybe short," said Pandya.
With four wins in five matches, RR solidified their position at the top of the table after the win while GT are third in the standings with three wins in five matches.
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