Miller magic carries Gujarat Titans to home IPL 2022 final

Gujarat Titans became the first team to qualify for the IPL 2022 final to be held in Ahmedabad after a clinical, unbeaten 106-run partnership between David Miller and Hardik Pandya took them over the line against Rajasthan Royals.

A rollicking start for Gujarat

Wriddhiman Saha was out caught behind against Trent Boult in just the second ball of the innings. However, both Matthew Wade and Shubman Gill went on a counterattack fueled by some insipid bowling inside the powerplay. Prasidh Krishna's second over that contained two boundaries off the bat, and a wide one down the legside set the tone as he ended up giving 14 in his first. Although Prasidh made amends in his second over, giving away only two, it was sandwiched between high-scoring overs at the other end. Wade picked back-to-back boundaries against Boult when he erred in line, and while Gill was fortunate to get one off an inside edge he too creamed one through covers as Boult gave away 31 in his first three. The onslaught was continued by Gill when Ashwin was brought on inside the powerplay. Lofting him for a six first and then cutting and flicking for boundaries, Gill started off the forgettable day for the spinner where he ended up conceding 40 in his four overs.

A brief stutter

Gill and Wade went on to put 72 in quick time before a massive mix-up ended in the run out of Gill for 35. Yuzvendra Chahal, the standout bowler for Rajasthan, meanwhile was instrumental in drying up the boundaries for Wade who eventually perished hitting a short one from Obed McCoy straight to deep midwicket, much to the surprise of even the bowler. At 85/3 just before the halfway mark, Gujarat had plenty of work left to do still.

A clinical partnership and finish

Despite Wade's wicket, McCoy ended up conceding 18 in the over with Hardik Pandya picking three boundaries off the erratic bowling. While he came back with a boundary-free second over, the pressure was once again released when Ashwin conceded a boundary apiece to Hardik and Miller in his final over. Miller also lofted Chahal for a six in the next over as Gujarat kept abreast of the asking rate leading into the end overs. With another monstrous six against Chahal and powerfully drilled boundary against McCoy, Miller got to a half-century off 35 balls. It boiled down to 16 off the final over bowled by Prasidh Krishna. David Miller finished it sensationally with three consecutive sixes smashed over the legside and remained unbeaten on 68 off 38. It made a mockery of a total that Rajasthan had fought their way to after being put in to bat.

Sanju owns the powerplay

The Royals lost Yashasvi Jaiswal in just the second over when Yash Dayal had him nicking behind. But the turnaround from then on was swift thanks to their skipper Sanju Samson, who launched the first ball he faced over long-on for six. The first 30 runs that Samson scored all came in boundaries and off just 11 balls. The powerplay yielded 55 in total with Samson lofting and pulling Alzarri Joseph for a couple of sixes before the fielding restrictions were lifted.

A spin choke

The advent of spin, and Rashid Khan in particular, after the powerplay though allowed Gujarat to pull things back quickly. Rashid did not concede even a single boundary in his spell of 4-10-15-0, and while R Sai Kishore was hit for a couple of boundaries by Samson, he had the batter holing out to long-on on 47. Rashid, with his mix of googlies and legbreaks, also applied the brakes on a hapless Buttler who was made to look a pale shadow of his power-hitting self.

The Buttler turnaround

Buttler was on 43 off 39 when Hardik slipped at long-off and saw what should have been an easy catch fly over his head to the boundary. Struggling until then, Buttler had more going his way when Alzarri Joseph let a boundary through his legs to allow Buttler to get to a fifty. It kickstarted the turnaround that Buttler, and RR, were desperately seeking. Buttler went about switching gears as he got 10 boundaries in his last 18 balls. He was also dropped by Rashid Khan during this period as Yash Dayal, Alzarri Joseph and Mohammed Shami bore the brunt of his onslaught. That final push allowed the Royals to get a more than competitive total that, however, did not prove to be enough.

Brief Scores: Rajasthan Royals 188/6 (Jos Buttler 89, Sanju Samson 47) lost to Gujarat Titans 191/3 (David Miller 68*, Hardik Pandya 40*) by seven wickets.