Hardik Pandya was an elated captain after Gujarat Titans’ (GT) crushing 55-run victory over Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday (April 25).
Asked to bat first, the defending champions piled up a massive 207/6 in their allotted 20 overs with major contributions from Shubman Gill (56 off 34), David Miller (46 off 22), Abhinav Manohar (42 off 21), and Rahul Tewatia (20* off 5).
With the ball, the Titans performed exceptionally well as a unit to restrict MI to 152/9. While the spin duo of Noor Ahmad (3-37) and Rashid Khan (2-27) shared five wickets between them, seamers Mohit Sharma (2-28) and Hardik (1-10) also did a brilliant job.
After the game, Hardik Pandya was asked about his captaincy and the GT skipper said that he and head coach Ashish Nehra's motto is to take calls on the spot rather than pre-meditating.
"That has been my motto, always taking calls on situations. T20 is very funny, a couple of sixes can change your mind. Captaincy is something I back my instincts on. I and Ashu Pa have a similar mindset, we back our calls and we have similar calls,” Hardik said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
The GT skipper also explained his decision to use the spinners' full quota in the middle overs.
“Today, the idea of bowling Rashid and Noor was simple. They like pace with Green and Tim David who are big hitters, and that's why we wanted to offer them spin and offer them spinners that are difficult to read. Wanted to close the game early because a couple of games haven't gone in our favour recently,” he added.
Hardik heaped praise on Abhinav Manohar, who earned the Player-of-the-Match award for his whirlwind knock while batting at No. 6.
"(On Abhinav Manohar) I think it is all hard work, he bats 2 hours in the nets every day it feels like. He's been our best death overs hitter. We spoke to him last year and there were a few things he had to improve on, and this year he's come out blazing," he remarked.
Gujarat Titans will next face Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on Saturday (April 29).
