Ruturaj can do wonders, says Hardik
- Ahmedabad: Gujarat Titans captain Hardik Pandya on Friday said that Ruturaj Gaikwad can do wonders to India if he continues to bat the way he did against the defending IPL champions. Titans defeated Chennai Super Kings by five wickets in the IPL opener at the Narendra Modi Stadium. The Chennai Super Kings opener smashed nine sixes and four boundaries in his knock of 92 from 50 balls. His 92 was the backbone of Super Kings' 178/7, which was chased down by the Titans in 19.2 overs. Asked about Gaikwad's innings at the post-match press conference, Pandya said, "We know the kind of player he is. At one point of time, it looked like he's going to take the score to 220-230. We were finding it difficult as to what areas to bowl because he's an all-round cricketer, plays cricketing shots".
- "I genuinely felt today we can't err to him at all. Some of the shots he played were not bad balls, they were actual good balls. That made a big difference. As a bowling unit and captain, that made my job much more difficult. Full credit to him. The way he's batting, if he continues, he's gone do wonders to Indian cricket. I am sure he has the game, and when the time comes the Indian cricket team will also back him enough," quipped Pandya.
- It was not Pandya alone who praised the Maharashtra batter's knock but even Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming termed him an untapped talent. "He's an outstanding talent and really untapped. We rate him so highly. When you see him playing like that, we think he's an absolute class player. He's got power, touch, and only good things would happen to him. Tonight, was an exhibition. He was disappointed. He could have kicked on and given us that extra 20 runs. That can happen. But the 90 runs he got were a pleasure to watch," said Fleming at the post-match media briefing.
- Including matches from last season, Titans have chased down nine of the 10 times they have been set a target. Eight of these nine have been achieved in the last over.
- Queried if the Titans had left the chase too long, Pandya said, "I don't think it was too long. We needed like 40 runs from 5 overs. And, on any given day on this wicket, we would expect to get that. It's just that we lost one-two many wickets which again boils down to the shot which I played, and the shot Shubman played. It's not about blaming each other but accepting our mistakes. Within the team, we have set quite high standards. So, obviously even after making some errors, we were very close to winning the game. Even if we would have lost the game, we would have learnt a lot. Still had hope that even if we were not playing to our best, we were competing."