We rightly deserve the play-off spot: Hardik Pandya

Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya acknowledged his group “rightly deserve” a spot throughout the play-offs of the Indian Premier League after a convincing 34-run win over Sunrisers Hyderebad proper right here on Monday.

Shubman Gill slammed 101 off merely 58 balls — his maiden IPL century — to power GT to 188 for 9 no matter a late comeback by SRH’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar (5/30).

In reply, SRH have been restricted to 154 for 9, as GT turned the first group to enter the play-offs this season.

“Very proud of the boys, two in two (making it to the play-offs twice in a row). The boys put their hands up and in challenging situations and we rightly deserve the playoff spot,” Hardik acknowledged on the post-match presentation.

“There will be expectations and for me it was important to focus within the group. We ticked a lot of good boxes, we made a lot of errors but we were always there in the game and tried to stay consistent,” he added.

After Gill and Sai Sudharsan (47 off 36 balls) laid the muse for a strong complete with their 147-run partnership for the second wicket — which was nonetheless wasted by the other batters — the likes of Mohammed Shami (4/21) and Mohit Sharma (4/28) shone with the ball to cut fast SRH’s advertising and marketing marketing campaign.

Impressed with their effort, Hardik generally known as himself a bowler’s captain.

“Bowlers are very close to my heart. Sometimes batters take a lot of credit, for me I will always be a bowler’s captain and ensure they get due credit that they very much deserve,” Hardik acknowledged.

Recalling his IPL debut in the direction of SRH, man-of-the-match Gill acknowledged it has come a full circle for him.

“My IPL debut was against SRH, now I’ve my IPL hundred against them. Quite pleased. It’s come a full circle. Hopefully I’ll get more hundreds this season,” Gill acknowledged.

“I’m not the kind of person who dwells too much on my last innings. The focus is on what’s needed at the moment. The most satisfying moment was to hit Abhishek (Sharma) for a six because he is my childhood friend.” Out of reckoning for a spot throughout the play-offs, SRH skipper Aiden Markram acknowledged his group will play for enjoyment of its remaining two video video games.

“A lot of pride for us to play for. We’ll try to give some opportunities if we’re allowed to. It’ll be nice to finish off the tournament in good spirits but unfortunately, we haven’t been good enough in the tournament this year,” Markram acknowledged.

“When a team is one down in the backend, it can go either of the two ways. It was important to break the partnership and Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar) did that for us. He’s been exceptional for us and Nattu (T Natarajan) as well.”