Pandya's 3/17 helped restrict Rajasthan Royals to 130/9 before the Gujarat Titans skipper's 34, along with vital contributions f om Shubham Gill and David Miller, helped them chase the target down with seven wickets and 11 balls to spare.
Nobody gave them a chance but Gujrat Titans , bucking all pre tournament predictions , surprised everyone by lifting the Indian Premier League (IPL) title in a dream maiden season after a seven-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals in the final in Ahmedabad on Sunday .
Gujarat's highly -rated bowling attack , led by skipper Hardik Pandya (3/17) himself , limited a formidable Rajasthan Royals batting unit to 130 for nine after losing the toss.
Shubham Gill and David Miller remained unbeaten on 45 and 32 respectively to complete an emphatic win for their team .
It should have been a comfortable chase but Rajasthan bowled their hearts out to make it an interesting final . As they showed all season , Gujrat remained calm in tough situations to finish the chase in 18.1 overs .
Not many gave Gujarat a chance in their first season especially after a mixed auction where they waited till the end to secure the services of wicketkeepers Wirddhiman Shaa and Matthew Wade .
It was not a team studed with star players but Hardik Pandya impressed with his leadership and got the best out of his colleagues.
His performance with bat and ball also contributed immensely to the team's triumph besides the ability to bounce back from any situation through the brilliance of Miller and Rahul Tewatia.
After posting an underwhelming total Rajasthan had to produce a special effort with the ball to get back in the game . The pace duo of Trent Boult and Prasidh Krishna were brilliant in the powerplay, reducing Gujrat to 31 for the two with Wriddhiman Saha (5) and Matthew Wade (8) back in the dugout .
Krishna got one to seam back in from good length to breach Saha's defence and crash into the stumps .
Boult, who also bowled a maiden over in his tidy spell , removed Wade . Gujarat would have been three down in the powerplay if Yuzvendra Chahal held on to a simple catch of Gill off Boult in the first over of the innings .
Hardik and Gill struggled to get the boundaries but never felt extreme pressure as the asking rate remained very much in control .
Ravichandran Ashwin was introduced in the 12th over and Hardik Pandya (34 off 30) decided to go after him , collecting a four and six off successive balls to bring up the 50-run stand with Gill and take Gujrat to 77 for two in 12 overs .
Rajasthan struggles worsened when Devdutt Padikkal (2) , who took eight balls to get off the mark , and Buttler departed in a space of three balls . With Rajasthan going at run a ball after 14 overs , big hits were the need of the hour .
However , Hardik Pandya made it 94 for five by having the dangerous Shimron Hetmyer caught and bowled . Ashwin perished in the following over , ending all hopes of a Rajasthan fight back .
