It was yet another extraordinary chase by Gujarat Titans in the first Qualifier of IPL 2022 at the Eden Gardens on a balmy Tuesday evening. Showing remarkable character, they chased down a challenging target of 189 to win by seven wickets and storm into the final in their debut appearance in the league.
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00:00Once again, Gujarat Titans showed why they were the No. 1 team in the league phase by chasing down a total of 190 with such ease and calmness.
00:10You know, you have to put your hat down to them and say that this is the team to beat.
00:24Hello, everyone. Welcome to Straight Bad with Gulf News and Mr. QA, Anish Sajjan.
00:29We are supposed to have with us a Rajasthan fan, Ram Ganesh. We will pick him up as we go along.
00:35But right now, with us, with me and Anish, we have Satish, aka Satish, that is our sports editor.
00:41Now, we are here to discuss Gujarat Titans' entry into the final. Anish, tell us all about it.
00:49Thank you, Shyam. Hi, Satish. And hello to all the gorgeous people of Gulf News.
00:54Once again, Gujarat Titans showed why they were the No. 1 team in the league phase by chasing down a total of 190 with such ease and calmness.
01:04You know, you have to put your hat down to them and say that this is the team to beat.
01:08And mind you, I will be very honest, at the end of the first innings, I thought this will be a tough target to chase.
01:14But the way they have faced the innings, you know, when it comes out, it looks good. But they have made it a habit.
01:20And Miller, once again, along with Pandya, showed how to chase targets. Back till the end, they played like the MS Tony style.
01:27Satish, Gujarat never looked in any kind of trouble at any phase of the chase. How do you describe the chase?
01:35It was a calculated chase, Shyam. Actually, it's a very good wicket if you look at the way Rajasthan batters, especially Sanju, the way he came and played.
01:45That showed there was nothing much on the wicket. So, actually, I would say, in hindsight, it's an underpass score.
01:52And thanks to some horrendous fielding display by Gujarat, Rajasthan managed to score 188.
01:59Otherwise, the butler at least had three chances and some horrible misfielding.
02:05But for those, I think the last four, five overs, Rajasthan got some 63-odd runs.
02:13That showed that there is nothing in the wicket. So, it should have been a much easier chase.
02:18Only thing is, Gujarat, again, just the way they fielded and made it difficult for themselves.
02:23Last four or five overs, they scored about, before that, 18 runs. I think they scored about 34 runs in four overs.
02:31When they were well ahead of time, they made it difficult by keeping the 16th run required for the last over.
02:39And won it with ease. So, they gave a much more good game than what you have seen.
02:45They could have played it better. But on the whole, it's a wonderful display by Gujarat.
02:51But they could have done it much more easier than what it is.
02:55If they had paced the inning slightly better, especially with just three wickets falling.
02:59Anish, we have always said that Rajasthan was heavily reliant on the butler.
03:05But today, we saw some Santhosh Samson and Padikkal carrying the Rajasthan batting when the butlers struggled.
03:12Your impressions on their game?
03:14Yes, you have to say that he was going through that lean patch in the last seven games.
03:19He had to dig himself in. And the wicket initially was sticky.
03:22As much as Satish is saying that it was an easy wicket, I felt the wicket was not that easy coming in to bat.
03:29But he dug himself in, played Rashid Khan out. And you have to give credit to Rashid Khan.
03:35Four overs, 15 runs. Unbelievable bowling on the surface.
03:38Like Satish said, if it's a good wicket. But in the end, he made up for the lost dot balls.
03:43And he was probably 90 or 50 balls. I think in the beginning of the innings, he was 30 or 31 balls.
03:49And then he finished with 90 from 55 or 60 balls.
03:53Yeah, 89 from 56 balls.
03:54Satish, so much as we say how much Butler was instrumental in Rajasthan reaching 188.
04:05Do you think he also was instrumental in slowing them down?
04:10If you look at, Santhosh Samson and Padikkal had to take excessive risk because Butler was bogged down.
04:18Cham, Butler was not scoring here. I have been telling for the last few games.
04:24If Butler doesn't score, Rajasthan doesn't win.
04:27Here also, Sanju played a brilliant knock of 47 from some 20-25 balls, 26 balls, whatever that be.
04:33He should have continued. There was no big knock from him.
04:37And the ways with which he was batting, that happened.
04:40See, Butler was out of form. He was not getting his time.
04:43But if you look at that, Sanju, wasn't he forced into playing that?
04:46Because the previous three overs, they hardly got anything out of Rashid Khan.
04:51Yeah, but only Rashid Khan is the main bowler.
04:54And Butler was clueless against Rashid Khan.
04:58Yeah, true. Butler was clueless.
05:01And yes, he finally made up and dug in.
05:04If they had taken the catch, especially Hathik Pandya, the way he slipped and fell.
05:10It was a straightforward catch.
05:13If he had taken that catch, Rajasthan wouldn't have even scored 160.
05:18If you look at the last five overs, 63 runs of which I think 50-odd runs were scored by Butler.
05:25So, I think, in a way, it helped because he was there till the end at least.
05:31So, Sanju or somebody, they have the particle who was also playing very well.
05:36So, they should have at least stayed for a longer period of time and asked Butler to go on the offensive.
05:41Instead of the other way. Because these guys are getting the timing right.
05:44Anil, do you agree Butler could have turned it on at that point because he was struggling?
05:51I will be very honest, Shyam. I wouldn't like to take this credit away from Butler.
05:56This was, I would say, a very good knock.
05:59As we are saying, it was not easy to play Rashid.
06:01But even Sanju was not able to hit him out of the park.
06:04So, we have to give credit to Butler.
06:08We might now feel that because they lost the game.
06:10If they won the game, we wouldn't have been talking this.
06:13But the fact remains, 190 runs plus the 20 runs saved by RR in the field.
06:20They almost saved almost 15-20 runs.
06:22So, it was 210 runs.
06:23So, you have to give credit to the Titans that they pulled this chase off.
06:29Honestly speaking, at the start, the win predictor said 70% RR is going to win.
06:35So, this is where, when credit is due, you have to give it to them.
06:39I know they could not pull off a chase against Mumbai.
06:41They faltered in the last over against Mumbai.
06:43But that's the beauty of this T20 game.
06:45But as long as you are in control of the game…
06:47Scoring 16 runs is not easy.
06:50Today, in this day and age, people score 16 runs.
06:53But they were all length balls and out of the park.
06:58The RR bowling was also done in by a bad form of Ashwin.
07:03Bakoy.
07:05Bakoy and Ashwin.
07:06Both of them let Rajasthan down today.
07:10I mean, as much as Sahil did pull it back.
07:14In fact, he pulled them back into the game.
07:15I think Ashwin gave the game away.
07:18Yeah, true.
07:19He was absolutely out of form today.
07:21And from what we saw, he has been bowling very fast.
07:25Maybe, this is the way he was bowling on the Mumbai wickets, which was worn-out wickets.
07:30So, the same rhythm, he must have continued.
07:33But there, the wicket was already weary wickets.
07:36It could have helped him.
07:38It could have bounced.
07:39He would have got those extra bounce.
07:40That is an illusion from somebody of his experience, isn't it?
07:44Absolutely.
07:44Absolutely.
07:45Yeah.
07:46He should have pulled it back or somebody should have told him.
07:50Instead, I think the problem was, the first over, he came into the par-play overs.
07:55And I think he was hit for some 17 runs by Gill.
07:58Some brilliant shots he played.
08:00So, I think that's where he was not able to get his rhythm in.
08:04Because he knew that he has already given a lot of runs.
08:07So, he was under pressure.
08:09So, that way, the pressure made him bowl a little bit more faster, which could happen to any bowler.
08:17At least, I thought, I mean, Gujarat was never under any pressure at any point of time.
08:22Although, they lost Pradhiman Saha very early in the innings.
08:25And I think a lot of the credit should go to Hardik Pandya, the way he held the innings together.
08:31He cut out all the risks.
08:32They were scoring boundaries and less sixes.
08:36But still, they kept the scoring around 9 runs per over.
08:41Tell us about Hardik Pandya's influence.
08:44You know what?
08:46As much as credit I want to give to Hardik.
08:48But the power-play was well-utilized by Gujarat.
08:51In six overs, they were almost 60-plus.
08:53So, which is where they were not under pressure.
08:56They were ahead of the rate, like you mentioned at the beginning.
08:59They were not behind the rate.
09:00When you are chasing a target of 190, and if your power-play is weak,
09:03where you scored 30-35 runs and you are already 30 runs behind,
09:06then you have to do that catch-up thing.
09:07In the case of Gujarat, they were already 20 runs ahead.
09:11When I say 20 runs ahead, it's that they did not have that pressure.
09:14And they were managing to get one boundary over, 7 or 8 runs of the over.
09:18So, in that way, if you see, the run rate never went above 12.
09:21Maximum what I thought, it went around 11 and a half, if I am not wrong.
09:25And that is the reason they could pull this off.
09:27And when the wicket became easy,
09:30I know we have to give credit to Gujarat again and again, I will say.
09:34Pulling off run-chases as good as a knockout game,
09:38hats off to Gujarat.
09:40And they have done it time and again in this tournament.
09:42Correct.
09:43And Shyam, Ram Ganesh has joined.
09:45Yes, we have with us Ram Ganesh, the Rajasthan Royals fan.
09:49Our commiserations on your defeat today.
09:51But you still are not out of the tournament.
09:52You are still going into the next eliminator.
09:55Tell us about your impressions of today's match.
09:59I mean, it was quite tough in the halfway stage, seeing Butler struggle in the first half.
10:05But that ending was very, very heartening to see.
10:08And I thought we had a great total on the board.
10:12The one difference, I guess I would say, it was basically one man, Rashid Khan,
10:16who made all the difference between 190 and probably even 200 plus.
10:19Those four overs were extremely priceless.
10:25And then, I feel as Anisbhai said,
10:28I think Prasad Krishna started throwing the game in the second over itself.
10:32There was never pressure.
10:34Bowling those five wides.
10:35Getting hit in between.
10:37And one more thing.
10:38I mean, we have already talked about some weird decisions that Sanju Samson takes.
10:42I was actually watching the match.
10:43After the fifth over, after he still haven't pulled them back,
10:47I told my wife, he is going to give the ball to Ashwin.
10:50And that's exactly what happened.
10:52I don't understand why.
10:54I mean, even Rashid Khan, one of the best spinners of the IPL,
10:58refuses to bowl in the powerplay.
11:00He doesn't like it.
11:01Because you don't have fielders outside.
11:02So, that was probably a tactical error.
11:04And then, of course, after that, some very shoddy bowling, I would say.
11:08But I have to give credit to Gujarat, where it's due.
11:11I mean, I did talk about their luck factor.
11:14And I don't know what Sanju has to do to win a toss.
11:17Maybe get a tantric or something.
11:19But I feel, kudos to Gujarat.
11:23But he was winning all the tosses earlier in the tournament.
11:27I think his luck ran out.
11:28No, no, no.
11:29He has been losing tosses.
11:32Samson won 2 out of 15 tosses.
11:33He has lost 13 tosses.
11:3413 tosses in 14 games.
11:3713 tosses lost.
11:38But I mean, kudos to that.
11:41I feel, it's still good things.
11:44Batting looks strong.
11:46Bowling, I don't know.
11:47I guess, people have kind of realized that you don't give Ashwin and Chahal wicket.
11:51You won the match.
11:52So, that is a bit of concern.
11:54We need to get the others coming in.
11:55We need to make sure our fast bowlers are coming through.
11:58I think Abed Makar had an off-day today.
12:01Yeah, I guess, very disappointing loss.
12:03Because we could have won it.
12:03Even in the last over 16 runs, there was a match there.
12:06And just got thrown away.
12:08So, bad luck.
12:10Tough luck.
12:10But good luck to us.
12:11And let's hope we come back and win.
12:14Satish, Ram makes an interesting point here.
12:17And what I see here, in the batting, all the batsmen pulled their socks up for Rajasthan.
12:22But the bowlers gave it away.
12:23And all of them, where they are under tremendous pressure.
12:27You have McCoy.
12:27You have Ashwin.
12:28And all these people just gave away Rahul Krishna.
12:32All of them gave away runs by the dozen.
12:35Yeah, but Shyam, if you look at, though, although Rajasthan has been one of the
12:43strongest bowling lineup, they have actually conceded more than 200 runs twice or thrice
12:48in this tournament.
12:49So, and they won after setting a target of 200 plus, 210 plus.
12:54They won by five runs, four runs.
12:56That says a lot.
12:57That means, if you don't give them wickets and you calculated an attack, they don't know
13:04how to handle it.
13:05I think, initially, if ball doesn't get you a couple of wickets, then they don't know
13:09how to get into the others and put pressure on them.
13:13And I think, today, that's where Gill and Wade played a brilliant role by not giving
13:18away more wickets.
13:20And, in fact, if you look at, they left the ball of Bolt a couple of times so that they
13:24don't edge the balls and give him a wicket.
13:27And the moment that didn't happen, and there was more pressure on Prasidh Krishna and Chahal
13:32and Ashwin to get the wickets as well as contain the runs.
13:35So, obviously, the more pressure it comes on you, the more mistakes you are going to
13:39make.
13:40I think it was a brilliant game, mental game played by Gujarat.
13:44Well-calculated chase.
13:48And I think they would do that because they know that somebody like Tyawatia can come
13:54and hit three sixes in the three balls and even 18 runs in the last over is possible.
13:57Even Rashid Khan too.
13:59Rashid Khan, for that matter.
14:00So, they have been there and won many of those close games absolutely from losing stages.
14:09So, that confidence must have helped them to chase 180.
14:13So, I think for a debutant team, this has been a wonderful performance.
14:19And as we have been talking about, it's been a complete, total game.
14:24And each one knew their role pretty well.
14:26And they executed their roles well.
14:28Only thing is, now the fielding in IPL has become more like a farce.
14:33I think that has really put a big blot on this.
14:37But Rajasthan did better.
14:39Rajasthan did very well, for that matter.
14:42Like, they saved some very good fours, as Anisbhai would have said, that they would
14:47have saved at least 20 runs.
14:48Yeah, Riyan Peraj, Itmayer, all those guys.
14:51On the other hand, Gujarat gave away at least 20 runs by bad fielding.
14:57And three catches.
15:00This is not done for a champion team.
15:03And this is not just Gujarat.
15:05I have been seeing this entire IPL.
15:07If you calculate, the catches must have been the worst in the entire history of IPL so far.
15:14Okay, the last round of questions here.
15:16Anis, did Rajasthan make a mistake here by choosing Prasad Krishna for the last over?
15:25Because normally, it is Obed McCoy who used to pull up the ball the last over.
15:29This time, Prasad Krishna came.
15:31If you look back, Obed McCoy gave away seven runs in the penultimate over.
15:35Whereas, Prasad Krishna got hammered for three sixes in a row.
15:39So, swapping those eight, 19 overs, 19 and 20, would that have made a mistake in your book?
15:46Not really, Shyam.
15:47Generally, you try and kill the game.
15:49And that's what, I would say, Sanju Samson did.
15:52Had Prasad Krishna bowled earlier and three seven runs required in the last over,
15:55you would have been saying that Obed McCoy did not bowl.
15:57Yeah, correct.
15:58But it would have been over by the end of the over.
16:00So, there's a thin line.
16:01You see, Prasad Krishna also bowled a maiden over in one of the games against Delhi.
16:05So, you have to give credit.
16:06But today, I mean, as much as we try to debate the mistakes here and there,
16:11you have to give it to Gujarat Titans that they played their…
16:14While batting, while chasing the game, they played their A game.
16:17They might have not bowled well or not fielded well.
16:20But batting Rashid Khan, the chase by Gujarat was a difference between the two teams.
16:28Yeah, and at no point, I felt they were going to lose the game.
16:30At no point did I feel…
16:31Yeah, which is why I said they had the chase under control throughout.
16:36No, but Shyam, I was actually surprised when they came into this close.
16:39Because last… For 60th over, they were well ahead of the run rate.
16:45Suddenly, they slowed down for some strange reason.
16:48Yeah, three overs, nine runs, seven runs.
16:50Seven, six and five.
16:51Seven, nine, eleven, seven.
16:55In four overs, from 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th.
16:58When you have seven wickets, you could have tried actually.
17:01But anyway, nevertheless, they won it.
17:03But if they had not, then maybe those three overs would have made a big difference there.
17:09Alright, Ram, before you go away, tell us, what are your…
17:14What do you think?
17:15You fancy your chances for the next eliminator?
17:17Yeah, that is the eliminator.
17:20Whom do you want to play?
17:21Who do I want to play? I think I would like to play LSG.
17:24We have got them… I think we have got over them twice this year.
17:27So, hopefully, we can just continue that trend.
17:32What about RCB?
17:33If you get to RCB, what happens?
17:35RCB, we did lose against them.
17:37So, I don't know.
17:37And with the form, Dinesh Karthikeyan, he wants to prove a point that,
17:41yeah, I am back now.
17:42So, I don't know.
17:42I don't want to take that chance.
17:44Plus, Virat Kohli is tracking back form.
17:45So, they look like a bit of a side that is on a roll.
17:48And you never know.
17:49Given the chance, he would want to make a point.
17:50They are more driven.
17:52LSG, I mean, end of the day, they have helped.
17:55They have captained by Rahul, who has got the tendency to not perform as well.
18:00Another Samson.
18:02Another Samson.
18:02So, I am hoping that in that situation…
18:05Yeah, I know.
18:06Anisbhai is a big fan of Rahul's captainship.
18:08I know.
18:09But Anisbhai, now he is going to be the India captain as well.
18:12That's a worry.
18:14Anyway.
18:14In a nutshell, yeah, I would like to…
18:16I think we had the vote over LSG.
18:18I think that's the team I would like to face.
18:20And hopefully, I will hopefully come back in the finals and take some revenge.
18:25The bigger worry with Rajasthan is, they win two matches and they lose two matches.
18:29So, that's the kind of pattern, yeah.
18:31So, before we go away, Anis, let us know about the contest.
18:36Well, as we all know, predicting the winner in this IPL has been very difficult.
18:40Predicting the winner in this IPL has been the most difficult thing.
18:43And today also, to be very honest, at the break, I felt it is going to be the team who put up 190, that is Aarar.
18:52But you have to give credit that Gujarat played like champions.
18:55They showed they are the number one team.
18:57And so, you definitely win an apparel kit as well as a one-year digital subscription.
19:03And tomorrow, we have the first of the eliminators.
19:06Lucknow Supergiants beating the Royal Selves Bangalore.
19:09Anis, what is your pick here?
19:12I will back RCB with the momentum.
19:14And with Virat Kohli back in form, definitely, they are the team to beat.
19:19Satish?
19:20I will go with RCB as well.
19:22Because they are looking much more rounded and solid.
19:26Total, complete package than Lucknow.
19:29That's my reading.
19:32Ram, you said you guys wanted to meet LSD in the final.
19:36Yes, I wanted to meet them.
19:37Who do you think will win tomorrow?
19:41Wanting to play LSD is one thing.
19:43But who will win tomorrow?
19:45I think I will still back LSD.
19:47I will still back them.
19:49After the kind of innings that we saw Quinton and Rahul play, the batting is very strong.
19:53So, let's hope that they come through and then they flop against us.
20:00Good hope.
20:01I am going to put cricketing logic aside.
20:03Because I have a soft corner for Bangalore.
20:05So, I am going to back RCB again.
20:07So, Ram, we are three of us against one.
20:11Three of us against you.
20:12Generally, the majority goes wrong.
20:18And one billion people supporting Virat Kohli, mind you.
20:21Yes, indeed.
20:22Very, very true.
20:24So, that's it from us today.
20:28We will come back for tomorrow, sir.
20:31First of the eliminators tomorrow.
20:32For all the breaking news and updates, log on to calsnews.com and all our social media channels.
20:36Thank you for joining us today.
20:38Thank you all.