Hardik Pandya seemed to be in good spirits. He was appointed captain of the in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 despite having no prior leadership experience. His club is currently the first to qualify for the IPL 2022 playoffs. They qualified for the top four with two games remaining. They have nine victories and 18 points in 12 games. After losing to Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians in their previous two games, the triumph against LSG was all the sweeter.
Pandya disclosed the message delivered to the GT side during the match against LSG, which they won by a stunning 62-run margin.
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“I’m quite pleased with the lads. We certainly believed in ourselves when we began this trip together, but to qualify before the 14th game is a tremendous achievement, and we should be very pleased with ourselves. “After the defeat against MI, I told the lads that we believed the game was already finished before it was done,” Hardik Pandya remarked after the game.
“That was a lesson we learned. I believe we were constantly under pressure in every game we won. The one game where we were ahead of the game and understood what sort of hitters we had was the final one, and we’ll finish it off. However, this did not occur. That was the topic of conversation among the group. ‘Let’s be ruthless,’ I remarked even when they were down eight in this game (against LSG). This game is stunning. It’s not over until it’s over. So let’s see if we can complete it. Let’s keep them down if they’re down, get this done, and relax after the game.'”
He explained how GT came back despite losing their past two games. “I always think that when you lose a game as a group, what matters is that you believe ‘we have won games as a team and we have lost games as a team.’ We did not do what we were expected to do, and we recognize we made a mistake, but we will fix it as a team. We’ll make sure that if we lose, instead of saying, ‘This man, that guy,’ we’ll say, ‘We lost.’ We continued laughing as well. “It’s critical to maintain the atmosphere,” he stated.
Pandya praised left-arm spinner Sai Kishore for taking two wickets for seven runs in his IPL 2022 debut.
“Say, I’ve given him a good rating as a left-arm spinner. He’s a really skilled bowler. He gets a bit more from the wicket because of his height and velocity. We were unable to force him to play due to the rapid bowling assault. But, after looking at this wicket, we decided that adding a spinner to the right-handers would make a significant impact,” he added.
Although GT was dismissed for a modest score of 144/4, Pandya was always optimistic about victory. “With 145, I thought we were in the game because of the manner everyone batted, particularly Shubman.” I believe their bowling was a bit too short.
“A bit more length was working,” she said. That was also the topic of discussion among the group. If you bowl particularly full, they can only score runs on cover drives or if you provide width. He said, “The bowlers performed all they were supposed to do, and we checked all the boxes.”
