GT vs RR, IPL 2022 Qualifier 1 Stat Attack: Miller’s most successful season ever; Buttler goes past 8,000 runs – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

David Miller smashed three successive sixes in the last over as first-timers Gujarat Titans breezed into the final of the Indian Premier League with a dominant seven-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals on Tuesday.

Rajasthan, which won the inaugural IPL in 2008, will have another chance to qualify for the final as they take on winner of Wednesday’s eliminator between Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Miller blazed 68 off 38 balls and captain Hardik Pandya scored an equally splendid 40 off 27 balls as Gujarat cruised to 191-3 with three balls to spare.

Both Gujarat batters decimated the spin threat of the tournament’s top wicket-taker, Yuzvendra Chahal (0-32), after Jos Buttler’s masterful 89 had lifted Rajasthan’s total to 188-6.

David Miller remained unbeaten on 68 off just 38 balls as Gujarat Titans chased down the 189-run target set by Rajasthan Royals with seven wickets left. Sportzpics

Trent Boult had given Rajasthan an early breakthrough when he had Wriddhiman Saha caught behind off a superb second ball which nipped away from the right-hander and got a faint edge.

But Shubman Gill and Matthew Wade both played significant cameos of 35 runs each before Miller and Pandya led the way for Gujarat, which had topped the league stage with 10 wins.

Obed McCoy raised Rajasthan’s hopes when the left-arm West Indian fast bowler gave away only seven runs in the penultimate over, in which Miller raised his fifty off 34 balls with a single.

But Miller kept his nerves and smacked Krishna’s first ball over long on before hitting the fast bowler for two big sixes over midwicket and cruised his team to a dream IPL final in its debut season.

Looking back at the action-packed Qualifier 1, we present to you some statistical highlights from the game:

— RR opener Jos Buttler became only the third English batter to cross the 8,000-run mark in T20 cricket, the others being Alex Hales (9,471) and Luke Wright (8,368). Buttler achieved the feat when he moved to 37 with a double during the Rajasthan innings.

— With his blistering 89 off 56 deliveries, Buttler’s run tally in IPL 2022 also went past the 700-run mark — th first time a batter has breached this number since 2018. Buttler has scored 718 runs so far, 181 more than KL Rahul, who sits second on the Orange Cap list.

— The ongoing season is David Miller’s best-ever in terms of runs scored. The Gujarat Titans and South Africa middle-order mainstay has collected 449 runs so far this season to sit at the sixth spot on the Orange Cap list, going past the 446 runs he had collected while representing Punjab Kings in 2014.

— With his unbeaten 68 off 38 balls in Qualifier 1, Miller is yet to be dismissed for a single-digit score this season.

— RR captain Sanju Samson now holds the record for the most tosses lost by a captain in a single edition. He lost the toss for the 13th time in Qualifier 1, going past MS Dhoni’s (12 in the 2012 edition) feat in the process.

— With his dismissal of Wriddhiman Saha in the second delivery of the innings, Trent Boult went level with Praveen Kumar (15) at the second spot in the list of bowlers with most wickets collected in the first over of an innings, a list that is topped by Sunrisers Hyderabad seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar (20).

With inputs from AP

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