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In a safety scare for the Gujarat Titans players and support staff, they had to be evacuated from the team bus after a short circuit caused a breakdown of the vehicle while it was ferrying them back to their hotel after the IPL final loss to Royal Challenge Bengaluru here.

PTI has learned that the team members, who are all safe and unhurt despite smoke spreading inside the bus, waited on the road for a short while before another bus was arranged to take them to the hotel.

The incident added to a miserable night for GT as they had earlier gone down to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL final by five wickets here on Sunday.

It was also a continuation of their tough travel itinerary as GT had to travel from Dharamsala to Mullanpur on May 27 to play the Qualifier 2 against Rajasthan Royals on May 29.

However, their scheduled departure to Ahmedabad on May 30 was inordinately delayed because of inclement weather in Mullanpur. GT reached their home base late on Saturday evening.

Was fatigue a reason for the Titans’ meek surrender to RCB in the IPL final?
“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 and that’s not really what we’re about,” said Vikram Solanki, GT’s Director of Cricket, in the post-match press conference.

“Admittedly, it (155/8) 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.