IPL 2022 Final, GT vs RR: How good was Hardik Pandya with the ball and other burning questions

Gujarat Titans completed a dream debut season with the IPL 2022 title, beating Rajasthan Royals by a convincing margin of seven wickets in the final. Asked to bowl first, Gujarat Titans were clinical with the ball as they have been throughout the season and restricted Rajasthan Royals to a meagre total of 130/9 in 20 overs, the second-lowest first innings total in an IPL final.

The game was almost sealed by this point, and barring a few early hiccups with the bat, Gujarat were on top throughout the game. Here are a few burning questions from the game.

Did Rajasthan Royals lose the game at the toss?

Rajasthan Royals made a surprising call at the toss, opting to bat first in a season where batting second has been the flavour. Even considering the pressure of the big final in front of more than 1 lakh spectators, it was a questionable call, considering the authority in run chases shown by Gujarat Titans, their opposition, this season.

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Heading into the final, Gujarat Titans had chased eight times in the season, winning on seven occasions, and missing out only once - against Mumbai Indians in a thrilling final over. Rajasthan Royals had early success defending totals, winning six on the trot, but in the last four times they batted first ahead of the finals, they had lost thrice, and won just once.

Given the extra bounce and movement on the wicket as seen in the Eliminator, Rajasthan had the chance to throw Gujarat Titans in with the bat on a surface they hadn’t played before but messed up the opportunity.

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How impressive has Hardik Pandya been with the ball this IPL?

Hardik Pandya clocked good pace this IPL season, returning from a long injury layoff and taking the ball after two seasons in the IPL. Bowling upfront in the powerplay in a lot of matches, Hardik finished the season with eight wickets at an average of 27.75 and an economy rate of 7.28.

Notably, in the final, he didn’t bowl in the powerplay, a phase where he had bowled more than 42% of his deliveries this IPL. In the middle overs, Hardik had largely been unsuccessful until tonight, taking just one wicket in 12 overs and registering an economy rate of 9.66.

Here, on a pitch with extra bounce, Hardik stepped in during that very phase and hit the hard lengths perfectly to trouble the batters. He was accurate and sharp and finished with figures of 4-0-17-3 with each of his four overs coming in the middle phase.

How GT produced a masterclass in bowling changes

Hardik Pandya found the perfect recipe for the Ahmedabad wicket and used his bowlers cleverly. A notable example for this was holding back Sai Kishore with the need for the left-arm spinner hardly arising given the match situation. The left-arm spinner did not bowl his first over until over 16. He finished with 2/20 in two overs, conceding a few boundaries off his final over to spoil the economy rate.

With Sanju Samson and Jos Buttler in the middle, Hardik was also clever to bring in Rashid Khan for the final over of the powerplay. With the two aggressive RR batters likely to capitalise on a quick bowler - the very same duo scored 13 runs off Alzarri Joseph in the first qualifier - the move to bring Rashid on was also to keep Samson, who has been ultra-aggressive early on. It worked like a charm and Gujarat had their noses in front as Hardik came in and bowled the tough middle overs, dismissing three key players.

Why David Miller was the real MVP for Gujarat Titans in their maiden title win

A feature of Gujarat Titans’ title win, as discussed before, was their exceptional record in run-chases, winning eight of them in nine attempts (including the win in the final). A key performer here was David Miller, who amassed 320 of his 481 runs in the second innings. Miller was only dismissed twice while making these runs, stepping up to ensure Gujarat Titans’ weak batting depth didn’t get exposed.

It’s worth mentioning that Miller did not compromise on his strike rate when scoring the big runs. Ending the season with an average nearly touching 70 - he also averaged 160.0 in run chases - and a strike rate of 142.7, Miller was a revelation. He played a big part in holding his end up and ensuring run chases were seen through till the end.

Miller’s knocks were crucial in Gujarat’s run to the finals, but there was also great personal development on the show. The South African was brilliant against spin, an earlier nemesis of his, scoring at a rate of 149.6 and averaging over 100 against them.

Did Rajasthan Royals learn nothing from their mistakes against Gujarat Titans earlier in the season?

Thrice in the season, Rajasthan Royals played Gujarat Titans with Jos Buttler top-scoring each time and sorely lacking support in at least two of these three matches. The Englishman had a weak support cast throughout the season and while the form of Sanju Samson, Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal and even R Ashwin helped sort a lot of those issues, RR needed to empower Buttler to help him play a bigger hand in the finals.

By promoting Riyan Parag ahead of Padikkal in the final, they could have lengthened that batting order and given more security down the order to Padikkal and Hetmyer. Parag has a much better record when walking in to bat inside the first 10 overs than afterward. While the Rashid threat loomed large, Parag might have taken the pressure off Buttler more than Padikkal or Ashwin could.

Having suffered a similar issue of the middle-order being exposed against Gujarat in both matches prior to this, Rajasthan did little to iron out the flaws and met the final head-on after their bold decision at the toss.

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