Hardik Pandya’s all-round show helps him enter record books – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Hardik Pandya had a perfect start to his IPL captaincy career after he led Gujarat Titans to the title win in the debut season.

The Titans met Rajasthan Royals in the final in Ahmedabad on Sunday and defeated them by 7 wickets after chasing down a target of 131 runs. Pandya led the team from the front as he first bagged a three-fer for 17 runs in 4 overs and then helped the side to come out of a tricky situation during the chase.

Hardik Pandya lifted an IPL trophy in his debut season as captain. Sportzpics

The right-hander came out to bat when GT were in a spot of bother at 23/2 but he along with Shubamn Gill steadied the ship and scored 63 runs for the third wicket. Hardik was eventually out for 34 off 30. Gill and David Miller later took the team home.

With this win, Hardik has etched his name in the record book. The right-hander joined Anil Kumble and Rohit Sharma in the list of captains winning the Player of the match award. Kumble did it in 2009 edition for RCB against Deccan Chargers while Rohit achieved the feat in 2015 for MI against CSK.

Apart from this, Hardik became the fourth Indian to win the IPL trophy as captain. The other three are Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir.

The 28-year-old became only the third skipper after Shane Warne and Rohit Sharma to lift the IPL trophy in his debut season as captain. Warne led RR in the first edition of the IPL while Sharma did it in 2013 for MI.

Hardik now has five IPL titles to his name and is at second spot in the tally along with Kieron Pollard and Ambati Rayudu. Rohit tops the chart with six titles to his name. Pandya was a part of MI’s IPL-winning squad in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020.

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