Gujarat Titans (GT) on Wednesday claimed their seventh victory of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 20202 after winning the last-ball thriller against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.
Rashid Khan, who had an off day with the ball, ensured to compensate with his blistering batting display, helping Gujarat successfully gun down the massive target set by SRH. The vice-captain of GT took Marco Jansen to the cleaners, smashing the left-armer three sixes in the final over to record the second-highest target achieved in the 20th over of IPL history.
The Afghan star hammered an unbeaten 31 from 11 deliveries to guide his team to a thrilling triumph. Rahul Tewatia also provided incredible support to Rashid, remaining undefeated on 40 off 21 balls.
After the match, Rashid revealed his success mantra, stating that he kept his shape strong and had the belief in his batting, for which he’s been working for the last couple of years.
“The feeling feels good, but at the same time, you just have it in mind to go out there and have the self-belief, keep my shape strong and hit it. I was happy to do it against them, but I was just trying to play my game and have the belief in my batting which I’ve been working on the last two years,” said Rashid during the post-match presentation.
Speaking about the epic final over where GT managed to go past the target of 22 runs, Rashid mentioned he told Tewatia they had conceded 25 in the first innings’ final over bowled by Lockie Ferguson and had to believe in themselves to pull off something similar like that.
“When it was 22 left, I just told Tewatia that we have given 25 in the last over with our best bowler Ferguson. We just have to have that belief in ourselves. If we have one missed ball, don’t think about it and don’t panic. Just stay strong, and we need to finish it or get as close as possible because it might help us with run rate. But as long as we have that belief, anything is possible. Just stay there, keep your shape and hit it strong. So that was our plan, and luckily we had those four sixes,” added Rashid.
