In the battle between the two debutant IPL teams in 2022, the Hardik Pandya-led Gujarat Titans (GT) thumped KL Rahul's Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by five wickets on Monday. LSG recovered early jolts to set a par target of 159 but 30+ scores from as many as four GT players got them the win with two balls to spare.
The last-over thriller caused quite a stir in the Orange Cap (most runs) and Purple Cap (most wickets) rankings for IPL 2022.
LSG's top order capitulated against GT's pacers, leaving the young middle order to salvage the innings. Deepak Hooda and 22-year-old Ayush Badoni did just that, scoring 55(41) and 54(41) respectively with 10 fours and five sixes in total. Badoni's self-belief and batting range were particularly impressive.
The half-centuries helped the two all-rounders jump straight into the top five of IPL 2022 Orange Cap contention. Hooda is placed third, 26 runs behind the second-placed Ishan Kishan, while Badoni follows him closely at fourth.
As a testimony to their teamwork, GT won despite none of their batters making it into the top 10 of the IPL 2022 Orange Cap race. The closest to it was Rahul Tewatia. The ₹9 crore signing played the finisher's role perfectly, and his brilliant 40(24) got him to 12th place in the rankings, just two runs shy of top 10.
GT's pacers dominated the match and also the IPL Purple Cap chart. Mohammed Shami bowled one of the spells of the tournament, dismissing KL Rahul, Quinton de Kock and Manish Pandey during his first spell with the new ball. The triple strike deservedly got him to parity with Kuldeep Yadav and DJ Bravo at the top.
Varun Aaron also contributed two wickets and ended up at ninth in the table. From LSG, Dushamantha Chameera almost recreated Shami's brilliance by taking two GT wickets with the new ball. He surprisingly didn't complete his quota of four overs to end up at seventh on the rankings, behind Umesh Yadav and Murugan Ashwin on bowling average.
Check out the IPL orange cap 2022 here.
Final two teams to join IPL 2022 Orange Cap and Purple Cap race on Tuesday
The Rajasthan Royals and the SunRisers Hyderabad are now the only two teams that haven't started their campaigns yet. They take on each other on Tuesday (March 29) at Pune's Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, starting at 7:30 pm IST.
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