Mumbai: The Gujarat Titans (GT) have made it to the top of the Indian Premier League (IPL) points table after defeating the Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 37 runs at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Thursday.

Hardik Pandya shone in all three areas as the Gujarat Titans captain led his club to a 37-run victory at the top of the table. With 193 runs to chase, Jos Buttler made a splash in the opening two overs, scoring five fours and a six.

RR decided to bowl first after winning the toss and it cost them dearly as the GT batsmen put up a mammoth total of 192 in the 20 overs.

RR, in their pursuit, managed to score only 155, despite Jose Butler’s heroic 54 runs in just 24 deliveries. Shimron Hetmyer and Riyan Parag scored 29 and 18 runs respectively.

RR’s start was not good as they lost their star batsman, Devdutt Padikkal, early. He departed without scoring. R Ashwin, who was promoted in the batting order as a pinch hitter, did not survive long; he departed for just eight runs. Skipper Sanju Sampson returned to the pavilion, scoring just 11 runs, and by the end of the seventh over, RR was in deep trouble, losing four wickets for just 74 runs. The team was bowled out for 155 runs.

Jose Buttler was the highest scorer for RR.

For GT, Yash Dayal and Lockie Ferguson picked up three wickets each, while Hardik Pandya and Mohammed Shami picked up one wicket each.

Batting first, GT scored 192 runs as skipper Hardik Pandya led from the front. GT’s start was also not good as they lost their openers in the early overs of their innings. Both openers, Matthew Wade and Shubman Gill, failed to fire; they departed for just 12 and 13 runs, respectively.

Vijay Shankar departed after just two runs. It was Hardik Pandya, Abhinav Manohar (43) and David Miller who, in the end, helped GT’s score inflate.

For RR, Kuldeep Sen, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Riyan Parag picked up a wicket each.