Gujarat Titans' captain Hardik Pandya on Friday admitted that he made judgement errors in a narrow loss while chasing against Delhi Capitals, after his side bounced back in the Indian Premier League to thrash Rajasthan Royals by nine wickets in Jaipur on Friday. Pandya struck an unbeaten 59 but GT could only make 125/6 chasing 131 against DC to suffer only their third loss in 10 matches by five runs.
But on Friday, Pandya smacked three sixes and as many fours while collecting 24 runs off RR's Adam Zampa to make a 15-ball 39, as GT recorded a comfortable win with 37 balls to spare.
"I made some judgement errors in the last game, but today my job was half done by the time Shubman (Gill) got out. I don't shy away from accepting mistakes, accepting is the key to succeed for me," Pandya told the broadcaster after the match.
Rashid Khan (3/14) and Noor Ahmad (2/25) set up the win for Gujarat Titans, for whom Shubman Gill (36) and Wriddhiman Saha (41 not out) provided a 71-run opening stand.
"I let Rashid handle the business with Noor; nobody (is) better to communicate. Not much (that) I have to do, I only suggest when to have a slip. They are very confident about what they want to do, we only have conversations when things aren't going right.
"I feel Wriddhi is one of the best keepers, not easy to pick Rashid and Noor with their speeds," Pandya added.
Rashid, who joined GT teammate Mohammad Shami at the top with 18 wickets so far in this IPL, said he is working hard in the nets to keep the batters guessing.
"Just making sure I don't give any signals for the batters to pick me. I'm trying to minimise the difference between leg-spin and googly, holding them the same way. I keep working on it in the nets, I want to make it perfect," Rashid said.
"Sometimes I lose my lines with my bowling. If I can keep the consistency with line and length then I know the batters will have problems. I try to understand what I do wrong in games.
"It is more to do with my line and length, I bowled a few bad balls and was punished. So I just look back and talk to the video analysts, and work on my pitch maps," Rashid added.
Rashid said it was pleasing to have Ahmad in the side, adding that the number of leg-spinners in Afghanistan is only growing.
"It makes it easier, we speak Pashto in the middle. Noor is happy that I'm with him and he's always someone who listens and puts in the hard work. To be honest, (there are) more than 1,000 (leg-spinners) now.
"There were 250 of them after my first year of IPL. Now, I've been playing IPL for 6-7 years now, and there are so many in Afghanistan trying to copy me," he said.
Saha said GT have multiple bowlers contributing to their success.
"We have been continuing with the benchmark we set last year. Not just one, but all the bowlers are contributing, which is why the Purple Cap has been moving around," he said.
Rajasthan captain Sanju Samson said his side needs to "pull their socks up" in the games to come.
"We had a very tough night, didn't really have a good powerplay to start with and struggled against the spinners. Their bowlers were bowling good line and length and kept on taking some crucial wickets during middle overs and when that happens, there is nothing much you can do.
"We have to check our to-do list and see if we are actually playing good cricket. We need to pull our socks up, a couple of crucial games are coming up and we are looking forward to winning," he said.