IPL 2022 Final, GT vs RR, Stats Review: Hardik Pandya’s best bowling figures in the IPL, Jos Buttler’s feat, and other stats

New franchise Gujarat Titans (GT) completed a fairytale story as they won the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) by defeating the inaugural season champions Rajasthan Royals (RR) convincingly by seven wickets in the mega final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Skipper Hardik Pandya was the star performer for his side in all the departments including his spot-on captaincy. He registered his best figures of 3/17 in the league and then scored 34 runs to win the title for GT in their very first season itself.

Talking about how the final encounter panned out, captain Sanju Samson won the toss and opted to bat first. Yashasvi Jaiswal again gave his side a quickfire start as he scored 22 off 16. Orange Cap holder Jos Buttler looked cautious and paced his innings slowly. Samson managed to score 14 while Devdutt Padikkal played a scratchy innings of two off 10 balls. Hardik took all the big wickets of Buttler, Samson, and Hetmyer as RR couldn’t find any momentum in their innings.

Buttler was the top-scorer for his side like he has been throughout the competition with his knock of 39 runs. The Royals finished with a total of 130/9 in 20 overs. Sai Kishore took two wickets while Mohammed Shami, Rashid Khan, and Yash Dayal all snared a scalp each. Chasing just 131 to win, Prasidh Krishna got rid of Wriddhiman Saha early for just five runs. Trent Boult dismissed Matthew Wade for eight runs and GT found themselves at 23/2.

But Shubman Gill kept going for his side with skipper Hardik also contributing in the chase. Yuzvendra Chahal took the latter’s wicket but it was too little too late for RR. With that wicket, Chahal won the Purple Cap award with 27 wickets in the competition. He also became the spinner with most scalps in an IPL season.

Meanwhile, David Miller and Gill both remained unbeaten on 32 and 45 runs respectively as GT sealed the deal in 18.1 overs. The impressive Titans side performed exceedingly well in the competition and the table-toppers deservingly lifted the trophy in their debut campaign. For his all-round performance, Hardik Pandya was named the Player of the Match.

Meanwhile, here are some of the important stats and numbers from the final between Gujarat Titans and Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League 2022:

 863 – Jos Buttler has now smashed the second-most runs (863) in an IPL season. Virat Kohli tops the chart with 973 runs in the 2016 edition.

374 – Buttler has now also scored the third-most runs in the powerplay in an IPL campaign. David Warner amassed 467 in 2016 while Adam Gilchrist 382 in the year 2009.

3/17 – Hardik Pandya registered his best bowling figures of 3/17 in the IPL. His previous best was 3/20 against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in 2019.

483 – Runs scored by Shubman Gill in IPL 2022, most by him in an edition. He managed to score 478 runs in the 2021 edition.

27 – With 27 wickets, Yuzvendra Chahal has now taken the most wickets by a spinner in a season. Wanindu Hasaranga took 26 wickets this campaign and Imran Tahir also 26 in the year 2019.

157.3 – Lockie Ferguson bowled the fastest delivery of 157.3 kmph in IPL 2022. He went past Umran Malik’s record of 157 kmph which he clocked against Delhi Capitals (DC).

2 – RR scripted the second-lowest total of 130/9 batting first in an IPL final. Mumbai Indians (MI) had scored 129/8 against Rising Pune Supergiant in the year 2017.

3 – Hardik became the third captain to win the POTM award in the final. Anil Kumble and Rohit Sharma won in 2009 and 2015 respectively.

2 – Hardik recorded the second-best figures of 3/17 by a captain in the final of the league. Anil Kumble is on top for taking 4/16 against Deccan Chargers in 2009.

50 – Hardik also reached the landmark of 50 wickets in the tournament.

3 – Buttler and Chahal won the Orange and Purple Caps respectively and it became the third instance of the highest run-getter and the leading wicket-taker ending up from the same team. Michael Hussey and Dwayne Bravo for CSK in 2013 and David Warner and Bhuvneshwar Kumar for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in 2017 are the other two instances.

17 – Riyan Parag has now taken the second-most catches (17) in a season. AB de Villiers grabbed 19 in the 2016 campaign.

100 – Hardik batted in his 100th IPL innings.