KKR vs GT- “I Said By The Time The Tournament Is Over I Would Lose All My Hair”- GT Captain Hardik Pandya On Close Win Against KKR

The 35^th match of the IPL 2022 saw Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) go up against Gujarat Titans (GT) on April 23, 2022, in the ongoing IPL 2022 at the DY Patil Sports Academy Complex in Navi Mumbai. GT won the toss and chose to bat first, with Hardik Pandya becoming the first captain to choose so.

GT made one change as Pandya returned to the XI in place of Vijay Shankar. Kolkata Knight Riders made quite a few changes, as Sam Billings, Tim Southee, and Rinku Singh were included while Aaron Finch, Sheldon Jackson, and Pat Cummins missed out.

Gujarat Titans managed 156/9 in 20 overs with Hardik Pandya contributing 67 runs in 49 balls with 4 fours and 2 sixes. David Miller contributed 27 runs as well. However, the total which looked to cross 180 at one time was brilliantly controlled by Tim Southee (3/24) and Andre Russell (4/5).

I Fancy On Defending And Having Rashid Khan And Lockie Ferguson: Hardik Pandya

Unfortunately, Kolkata Knight Riders didn’t have the start they would have wanted as only Shreyas Iyer with 12 reached double figures from their top four as Nitish Rana, Sunil Narine, and Sam Billings all fell for single-digit scores.

Rinku Singh stabilized the KKR innings with 35, while other major contributors were Venkatesh Iyer (17) and Umesh Yadav (15), towards the end. However, Andre Russell came to the party with the bat as well, scoring 48 in 25 balls with 6 sixes and one four and took the equation to 18 runs needed in the last over.

But it was not to be as Alzarri Joseph dismissed him on the second ball of the over, despite getting hit for a six off the first ball. KKR ended on 148/8 and lost by 8 runs.

After the win, Hardik Pandya, the Gt captain was elated with his team’s win and said: “I said by the time the tournament is over I would lose all my hair. As a team we’ve been under pressure but the boys stepped up and showed their character. (Openers) I’ll play against the odds, it hasn’t come so far and must be around the corner. We’re backing them and in the middle we’re managing alright. Once they kick-in it’ll be wonderful. We have three days and I will go back and focus on the things I can control.

I thought we were ten-twelve runs short. But I back my bowlers. The wicket played similar throughout the match. I fancy on defending and having Rashid Khan and Lockie Ferguson changes dynamics. Shami in the powerplay, Alzarri bowling the way he bowled, Yash has bowled a no ball for the second time and he will get better. When that happened, we were like that game would have been over and it wouldn’t have gone this close.”

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