On the night of Sunday, May 29, Gujarat Titans (GT) became the first team to win an Indian Premier League (IPL) title in their debut season after defeating Rajasthan Royals (RR) by seven wickets in the final.
The last time a team won an IPL title on debut was in the inaugural edition in 2008 when this season’s runners-up Rajasthan Royals lifted the trophy.
The IPL 2022 final was held in front of GT’s home crowd at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium, where a record number of fans – 1,04,859 – attended a cricket match.
The Titans faced the Royals in the final after beating them in Qualifier 1. The latter made it to the final after beating Royal Challengers Bangalore in Qualifier 2.
In the summit clash, Rajasthan Royals won the toss and opted to bat first. They put up 130/9 in 20 overs with the in-form Jos Buttler top-scoring with 39 (35).
The debuting team’s captain, Hardik Pandya, claimed three wickets, including Buttler, Sanju Samson and the dangerous Shimron Hetmyer, to finish with figures 4-0-17-3 and give the Titans a hold over the Royals in the first innings.
In response, the Gujarat-based franchise scored 133/3 mostly anchored by young opener Shubman Gill’s 45* (43). Pandya’s 34 (30) and David Miller’s 32* (19) also ensured the team chased down the barely-sufficient total without too many hiccups.
Hardik Pandya was declared the Player of the Match in the final for his all-round exploits. This is his fifth title in five IPL finals, with all of his four previous titles coming with his former team, Mumbai Indians.
With this Sunday night victory, Gujarat Titans became the sixth team to win the Indian Premier League Trophy since the league’s inception in 2008. The other winners are Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Desite ending on the losing side, Jos Buttler earned the Orange Cap with 863 runs in his kitty, which came with four hundreds, four half-centuries, 83 fours and 45 sixes at an average of 57.53. He is a whopping 247 runs ahead of second-placed KL Rahul in the top run scorers’ list.
The Purple Cap winner was also from RR – Yuzvendra Chahal. He pipped Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Wanindu Hasaranga by one more scalp and claimed the top spot with 27 wickets.