Newbies Gujarat Titans defeated Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets in the final of IPL 2022 on Sunday.
Gujarat Titans’ star leg-spinner Rashid Khan termed the IPL 2022 title win on Sunday as the “biggest achievement” of his career. The Hardik Pandya-led side eased past Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets at the Narendra Modi Stadium to win an IPL trophy in their maiden season.
After getting an invitation to bowl first, Gujarat restricted Rajasthan to a below-par total of 130/9 before reaching home with 11 balls to spare. It was an all-round show from Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya that kept the newbies ahead in the game throughout. With the ball, Hardik registered his best figures of 3/17 in four overs, while he scored valuable 34 off 30 with the bat.
On the other hand, GT’s star leg-spinner Rashid Khan also impressed by returning figures of 1/18 in his four overs. In the season, Rashid played 16 games and picked 19 wickets alongside bowling at an economy rate of 6.60.
“Biggest achievement of your career is to be part of a winning IPL team. You always want to do well in big competitions like this. Winning tournaments like this, you'll need to put in a lot of hard work and this is certainly a high point of my career,” said Rashid after winning the title for Gujarat Titans.
Meanwhile, an elated Wriddhiman Saha, who provided muscle to the power-packed batting line-up of Gujarat Titans as an opener, said that his side proved its critics wrong.
“This is my 5th final and the 2nd final I have won, someone said our team was not good after the auctions, but we proved them wrong,” said Saha after the win.
The maiden season for Gujarat Titans that ended with a six from Shubman Gill was kicked off by Mohammed Shami with a wicket against another newcomers Lucknow Super Giants on April 28. Shami had bowled a ripper to KL Rahul and set the tempo for his side, who kept playing dominant cricket throughout the season.
“We needed to start the tournament well (on the first ball dismissal of KL Rahul in the team's first game), set up a template for the team. The idea was only to start well for the team, concentrate on the line and length,” said Shami.