Mumbai: Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya blamed two run-outs at a crucial juncture in their innings for the five-run defeat to Mumbai Indians in Match 51 of IPL 2022 at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Friday.
It was a match that Gujarat should have won easily considering the start they got but in the end, they could not make nine runs off the last six balls. Pandya himself was run out at a crucial juncture while Rahul Tewatia was caught short in the last over, the two dismissals thwarting Gujarat Titans.
“On any day, we’d take 9 off the last over. The two run-outs cost us the game. I think batters let us down. In T20s, you can’t lose back-to-back games,” the Gujarat skipper said at the post-match presentation on Friday.
“No blame games as we have cleared such games. We have made rookie mistakes which cost us this one. We played good cricket for 19.2 overs in our innings, one or two hits would have made a difference. We should not have let it come down to the last over,” said Pandya.
“I think bowlers did a fantastic job by putting pressure and pull it back to 170, as they were on the way to 200,” he added.
But in the end, the bowlers’ efforts and those by Saha and Gill went in vain as the middle and lower-order could not pull the team past the line.
