As the most consistent team in the competition, the defending champion Gujarat Titans qualified for the IPL playoffs once again.
The Hardik Pandya-led squad has all aspects covered, and as a result, they have managed to emerge as one of the competition’s powerhouses. Former cricketer Shaun Pollock is extremely impressed and has dubbed them the “Manchester City of India.” Notably, the English football club is extremely consistent in the Premier League, and Pollock drew parallels between their consistency and his own.
In IPL 2023, Gujarat Titans finished on top of the standings with 10 victories out of 14 league encounters. They have now qualified for the semifinals and will face the four-time defending champion Chennai Super Kings on May 23. Gujarat will qualify for yet another final if they defeat the MS Dhoni-led team; if they lose, they will advance to Qualifier 2 and have another opportunity to reach the finals.
Thus, Pollock praised them for their dazzling style of cricket, but he also cautioned them that reality will soon set in. The former captain of South Africa stated that the Hardik Pandya-led team played without pressure for the majority of the tournament, but in the playoffs, they may experience the pressure. Therefore, he wishes the team to be cautious in the final stages of the tournament.
“At the present, we’ll likely have to refer to them as the Manchester City of the IPL. Consider the net run rate plus 0.8 percent. They have not only been victorious, but they have also been victorious in style. They must enter with great assurance. I mean that it is now always a challenging portion of the tournament. You believe that over the past ten days they have not been under much duress because they have already qualified for the first playoff game.
Then all of a sudden you go back and you go do or perish. Clearly, in the second game, but not in the first. At some point, they must confront the possibility that they could be eliminated,” Pollock said in an interview with Cricbuzz.
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