The most poignant moment was when Hardik Pandya’s wife Natasa Stankovic ran on to the ground to hug him, overwhelmed with emotion after IPL debutants Gujarat Titans thrashed the tournament’s inaugural champions Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets in the final at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday night.   

Stankovic kept weeping even as Pandya tried hard to calm her. “She is very emotional and gets happy when she sees me doing well. She has seen me go through a lot of things. She has seen me putting in the hard yards no matter what. That’s something I don’t speak about, but she knows how hard I have worked behind the scenes,” Pandya said at the post-match virtual press conference.