Gujarat Titans: Abhinav Manohar hailed by Hardik Pandya after IPL heroics

Gujarat Titans captain Hardik Pandya has heaped praise on Abhinav Manohar after his last-over heroics earned them a five-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants in Mumbai on Monday.

Mohammed Shami put in a man of the match performance as the franchise with figures of 3/25 which ensured the Super Giants never really got going in their innings.

They were restricted to 158/6 in their 20 overs after half-centuries from Deepak Hooda and Ayush Badoni.

Their bowlers did a reasonable restricting job with ball in hand, and ultimately the Titans needed 11 off the final over.

Up stepped debutant Manohar, who smashed consecutive fours off Avesh Khan’s bowling to all but secure the victory for his side.

Pandya, meanwhile, played his first game since November last year, and bowled four overs while scoring 33 batting at number four.

Pandya taking pressure off others

“Mostly I’ll bat at number four, because I want to take pressure with my experience so that the others can play freely,” he continued

“We want to win as a team and nobody can take the contribution away from anyway.”

He was also full of praise for Shami, who bagged three huge scalps in KL Rahul, Quinton de Kock and Manish Pandey and got them early.

“This was the right game for us to be on either side and learn, but have learnt a lot by winning,” he added.

“Shami is known for his seam positions and he got us to a great start. We would have any day taken 160 on this wicket,” he said referring to Super Giants 158 for six.