IPL 2023: We did all we could, took the game to the last ball – GT team director Vikram Solanki

Gujarat Titans team director Vikram Solanki admitted they did everything they could as they took the game to the last ball against Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Tuesday. GT suffered a nail-biting five wickets loss (DLS method) against CSK, who claimed their fifth IPL title.

13 runs were required off the final over and GT death-overs specialist Mohit Sharma nailed the yorkers on the first four balls and thus conceded only three runs. With 10 runs needed off the last two balls, the pressure on Chennai Super Kings all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. However, Jadeja smashed a six and a four to take CSK to a thrilling win.

Meanwhile, Gujarat Titans were consistent right throughout the tournament as they won 10 matches out of the 14 league stage games. However, they lost to CSK on both occasions in the playoffs – Qualifier 1 and the final.

Players like Shubman Gill, Mohit Sharma, Rashid Khan, and Mohammed Shami performed consistently for Gujarat Titans but they fell short in the final despite putting a par score of 214 runs, the highest-ever in the IPL final, on the board. However, after rain intervention, CSK had to chase down 171 runs in 15 overs, which they were able to do.

The former England opener feels a curtailed match made the difference but he doesn’t want to take the credit away from CSK.

Vikram Solanki said in the post-match press conference, “It [curtailed match] may have done [made a difference], but I’m not going to take anything away from CSK. Not today. They were the champions and they deserve to be the champions. We did all we could, we took the game to the absolute last ball.

“The game kept shifting. We were quite outstanding with the bat whether the conditions changed or not, that’s a conversation you can keep having but I’m not going to take anything away from what the side has achieved.”

On the other hand, GT lead spinner Rashid Khan had a tough day at the office in the all-important final. The Afghanistan spinner went wicketless and conceded 44 runs in his quota of three overs. Ergo, it turned out to be a major difference between winning and losing.

“Today’s performance was certainly not his best, but sometimes that happens in sports. He is a wonderful team member and an outstanding team cricketer, he has played a huge part in the last two seasons that we have had.”

GT once again impressed with their consistent performances in IPL 2023 and they were able to come up with collective efforts but fell short in the final.