How do you beat the Gujarat Titans? That’s the question which every other franchise must be pondering as the newbies continue to find ways in every game with one player or the other putting up their hand and taking their team to victory.
When the auction happened, Gujrat were rated as one team which did not have any big names and would struggle but boy, how under Hardik Pandya they have turned up and won almost every game.
Eight wins
Gujarat are currently sitting pretty on 16 points with eight wins and just one loss after 9 games and have five more games to notch up two more wins to be in the top two which will give them an extra bite of the cherry in case they have one bad game.
They started their campaign with a tight win over Lucknow, then beat Delhi, won a thriller against Punjab thanks to Rahul Tewatia who hit two sixes off the last two balls, had a loss to Hyderabad in their fourth game but after that beat Rajasthan convincingly, beat Chennai from a losing position thanks to David Miller, then beat Kolkata, avenged their loss against Sunrisers when they chased 25 runs off the last over thanks to the brilliance of Rashid Khan, and today beat Royal Challengers Bangalore with the iceman Rahul Tewatia and Miller seeing them home.
Full of confidence
Every game they have a hero, be it Mohammed Shami or Ferguson or Khan with the ball, Tewatia or Miller with the bat or their captain Pandya, all of them have bailed their team out of the woods and ensured that they come on top from difficult positions.
It’s a team full of confidence and I dare say a team to beat in this IPL.
No doubt Pandya has lead his team very smartly but the captain is as good as his team and his Gujrat team has players who every game show why they are the team on top. Their captain said luck might run out some day but when you have players who have temperament made of steel, luck has to go your way.
