The Gujarat Titans and the Lucknow Super Giants opened their IPL 2022 campaigns yesterday evening against each other at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Hardik Pandya made his captaincy debut for GT, while former Punjab Kings captain KL Rahul played the skipper’s role for LSG.
Fans expected Rahul’s team to perform better because the wicket-keeper also has the experience of captaining at the international level. However, Hardik Pandya’s team beat the Super Giants and got off to a winning start in IPL 2022.
Both captains made some good and bad decisions during yesterday night’s battle. In this article now, we will look at one captaincy masterstroke from Hardik Pandya that helped GT defeat LSG.
Giving 1 extra over to Mohammed Shami helped GT gain an upper hand against LSG in the 1st over
Mohammed Shami was the Man of the Match in the match between the Gujarat Titans and the Lucknow Super Giants. He started the match with a wicket of KL Rahul on the first ball. Soon after, he rattled the stumps of Quinton de Kock with a dream delivery.
While most captains would have stuck to their original plan and changed the bowler for the third over. Hardik Pandya gave one more over to Mohammed Shami, and in that over, he dismissed Manish Pandey.
Since Lucknow Super Giants lost four wickets for just 29 runs, Deepak Hooda and Ayush Badoni had to take a lot of time in the middle before playing aggressive shots. The number of dot balls in the first 10 overs of Lucknow’s innings helped Gujarat win the match.
“I try to come round the wicket to a leftie and make that angle because that’s the most uncomfortable thing for them. Hardik asked me if I wanted the fourth over on the trot, but I told him to hold me back,” Shami said after winning the Man of the Match award.
