Former head coach of the Indian team, Ravi Shastri, heaped praises on Gujarat Titans' (GT) skipper Hardik Pandya, after his brilliant all-round display against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the IPL 2022 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Sunday, May 29.
Conceding only 17 runs in 4 overs while scalping 3 wickets, Hardik put up a brilliant bowling show on his team's home ground. Hardik picked up the three important batters of RR - Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, and Shimron Hetmyer.
Based on their incredible bowling performance, GT managed to restrict the Royals to 130 runs at the end of 20 overs.
Talking about Hardik's performance in the night of the final, Shastri told Star Sports: "He was brilliant tonight. Just assessed the conditions really well. He was so calm, hit the right areas, and did not give any room whatsoever. The wickets he picked were serious wickets, Samson, Buttler, and Hetmyer. On a big day like this, in front of his home crowd, to come up with a show like this is top-class stuff. Top-class captaincy, top-class bowling."
"If you look at the bunch of deliveries he bowled, no room anywhere, hit those hard lengths and mixed it up with the fast off-cutters. Simply brilliant," he added.
Hardik bowled with extreme accuracy in the final, giving the RR batters no chance to open up and put runs on the scoreboard. Hardik registered his career-best in the IPL, as he picked up 3 wickets at the cost of 17 runs.
The return of his bowling form before the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 is a sigh of relief for the Indian team, as Hardik had not bowled in the past two seasons of IPL for the Mumbai Indians.
(Star Sports inputs)
