Hardik Pandya: Noor Ahmed difficult to pick, other bowlers didn't execute

Hardik Pandya on Sunday said that apart from debutant Noor Ahmed, no other bowler executed their plans after Gujarat Titans (GT) lost to Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023.

Chasing GT's target of 178, RR captain Sanju Samson and middle-order batter Shimron Hetmyer scored half-centuries each as they sealed a victory with four deliveries to save. In what was a repeat of last year's final, RR finally avenged their title defeat by beating the reigning champions by three wickets at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.

Speaking at the post-match presentation, Hardik also admitted that his side was at least 10 runs short.

"To be honest no (didn't expect the loss after the powerplay), but that's the beauty about this game. The game is never over till it's over, another lesson for us. (Noor Ahmad) He's someone who's difficult to pick, got us the big breakthrough but the other bowlers didn't execute. The body is good, everything is good. It's a very long tournament. A lot of matches left, we still need to play a lot of group cricket even if we had won today," added Hardik.

On GT's score, Hardik said," I felt short. After I got out, they bowled a couple of good overs, but we should have gone a little harder and got to 200. We did cover it well but when I was watching from outside, I did feel that we were 10 runs maybe short."

Meanwhile, RR skipper Samson said that he was happy to compete in such close encounters and come out on top.

"It was important to rotate our bowlers, they were playing some quality cricket and we had to respect that. The whole team came up well today and we could restrict them to around 170. The start we had, it shows how good a wicket this was. The new ball the quality of swing bowling was good and we had to respect that.

"But today Zampa coming was a way to match-up with the opponents. He was the match-up for Miller and almost got the wicket, but the catch was dropped. (On Hetmyer) He doesn't like easy situations, we like putting him in such situations because he usually wins us games from such situations," added Samson after RR's spectacular win on Sunday.

Today was like a revenge, says Hetymer

Coming in to bat at No. 6, Hetmyer struck five sixes and two fours in his knock of 56 off just 26 balls and that rightfully earned him the Player of the Match.

"I don't have any words. Difficult to win against these guys, they beat us thrice last year but today was sort of a revenge. I practise these situations, it helps when you practise with that mindset of knowing we are a few wickets down and chasing 100 with 8 overs to go.

"(On Noor Ahmad bowling the final over) I was actually pretty happy to be honest, he bowled well throughout so the first ball all I was thinking about was getting that double and taking it from there," the West Indian added.