Hardik 62* helps Titans post challenging 168-5

Gujarat Titans’ Hardik Pandya en route his 50 v Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Wankhede Stadium yesterday. Pic/BCCI; IPL

Gujarat Titans set a challenging 169-run target for Royal Challengers Bangalore, thanks to skipper Hardik Pandya's unbeaten 47-ball 62 in their final league match at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.

The absence of RCB's Harshal Patel (1-0-6-0), who injured his webbing while fielding, was well exploited as GT posted 168-5.

At the time of going to press, RCB, in reply, were 77 without loss after nine overs.

By hitting 34 runs in the last two overs, Pandya and Rashid Khan (19 not out off six balls) watered down all the efforts of the RCB bowlers, who maintained a tight leash on the run rate.

Such was the impact of the last two overs that the dismissals of David Miller (34) and Rahul Tewatia (2) in the 17th and 18th overs respectively hardly seemed to have any bearing on the overall score.

Saha, who slammed an unbeaten 67 in GT's last match against CSK, took off from where he left off. The wicketkeeper-batsman began with a boundary to fine leg.

The six over long-on was a sheer show of exquisite timing from Saha. He ended the over with a crisp cover drive to the fence to take 14 runs off birthday boy Siddarth Kaul's opening over.