In a safety scare for Gujarat Titans' players and support staff, the team had to be evacuated from their bus after a short circuit caused the vehicle to break down while ferrying them back to the hotel following their IPL final defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
All team members are safe and unhurt, though smoke had spread inside the bus. The players and support staff waited by the roadside for a short while before another bus was arranged to take them back to the hotel.
The incident capped a miserable night for GT, who had earlier lost the IPL final to RCB by five wickets on Sunday. It also came at the end of a demanding travel schedule for the Titans. The team had travelled from Dharamsala to Mullanpur on May 27 for their Qualifier 2 clash against Rajasthan Royals on May 29. Their scheduled departure to Ahmedabad on May 30 was then significantly delayed because of inclement weather in Mullanpur, with GT reaching their home base only late on Saturday evening.
Asked whether fatigue played a role in the Titans' subdued performance in the final, GT Director of Cricket Vikram Solanki refused to use the schedule as an excuse.
“I don't want to take away from the fact that RCB have won by simply stating that we've had this number of games in these short days and we're fatigued. That's not really what we're about," Solanki said at the post-match press conference.
"Admittedly, it was a below-par total, but they showed great fight to try and defend it. We might make an assessment of what we might have done differently, that's a given. But I think you've got to accept that the opposition sometimes play well as well," he added.
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