Gujarat Titans (GT) defeated Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by eight runs in the 35th match of IPL 2022 in an interesting battle at DY Patil stadium in Mumbai. Hardik Pandya won the toss and took a brave decision to bat first against the Kolkata franchise in a day game.

The Titans while batting first set a target of 157 riding on a half-century from captain Hardik. Gujarat lost the early wicket of Shubhman Gill in the 2nd over. But Pandya formed good partnerships with Saha and Miller to take Gujarat to a respectable total.

Abhinav Manohar is a great athlete and has contributed immensely on the field. With the required run rate increasing, Venkatesh decided to slog-sweep Rashid Khan but couldn’t clear the rope and the ball went into the hands of Manohar who was standing at the deep midwicket fence.

The ball was present in the air for a long time but Abhinav kept his cool and kept his eyes on the ball till the last moment and maintained his perfect balance near the boundary rope. Such catches are never easy to take.

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While chasing the target of 157, the Knight Riders had a shaky start and were struggling at 34/4. Venkatesh Iyer had the responsibility of taking the Kolkata franchise to a comfortable position. But his short innings of 17 were ended by a stunner of catch from Abhinav Manohar. Abhinav has taken IPL 2022 by storm with his amazing hitting abilities.

Gujarat Titans storm to the top of the points table

While batting first, Hardik Pandya led from the front and scored a great knock of 67 runs in 49 balls. It helped Gujarat post a total of 156 runs. Andre Russell picked up four wickets in the final over to restrict Gujarat from scoring in excess of 160 runs.

There was no one stopping Russell with the bat too. The hard-hitting Jamaican played a lone warrior knock of 48 runs which gave KKR a great chance to win the match. But Alzarri Joseph held his nerve in the last over to seal the tie in favour of Gujarat Titans.

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