Gujarat Titans jumped to the second spot on the points table as they beat Mumbai Indians in Match 35 of TATA IPL 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad yesterday.
A classy half-century from Shubman Gill (56 off 34) set the platform and then blistering knocks from Abhinav Manohar (42 off 21) and David Miller (46 off 22) provided finishing touches to power GT to a daunting total of 207/6. The Afghanistan spinners – Rashid Khan (2/27) and Noor Ahmad (3/37) – then starred with the ball to bundle MI out for 152/9 and win the match by 55 runs.
Chasing 208, captain Hardik Pandya provided Gujarat Titans a good start as he sent back the opposition captain Rohit Sharma in just the second over. Rohit got a top edge as he looked to pull one to the leg side and Hardik settled under it to pouch a tricky catch on return.
Shami bowled a brilliant third over and beat Ishan Kishan’s outside edge multiple times, conceding just two runs. Green finally got the first boundary of the innings, in the fourth over as he smashed one over long off for a powerful six. There was only just one more four hit thereafter in the Powerplay as MI reached 29/1 at the end of first six overs.
The pressure was building and it brought rewards as Rashid Khan sent back Kishan (13 off 21) in the eighth over and three balls later, trapped Impact Player Tilak Varma LBW via a successful review. MI were pushed on the back foot as they reached 58/3 at the halfway mark.
Noor Ahmad added further misery for MI as cleaned up Green (33 off 26) in the next over and dismissed Tim David to reduce MI to 59/5. Rashid then bowled an eventful over in a riveting battle against Rashid Khan as he cracked a couple of fours and a six and in between, reviewed successfully after being given out LBW trying to reverse sweep. Nehal Wadhera took the attack to Ahmad, hitting a four and a six and Suryakumar swept one for a four but the Afghanistan spinner bounced back to have the ominous-looking Suryakumar (23 off 12) caught and bowled. With the required run-rate creeping over 18, Wadhera and Piyush Chawla got together and tried to put up a fight with a 24-ball 45 run stand but with 73 needed off 18, Chawla departed, run-out, trying to run through for a bye. Wadhera (40 off 21) departed in the same over, mistiming his scoop to short fine leg, off Mohit Sharma. It was always going to be an uphill battle as MI kept losing regular wickets and they fell well short of the target as GT won the match by 55 runs.
Earlier, Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bowl. They made three changes to the starting XI as Nehal Wadhera, Kumar Kartikeya, Riley Meredith replaced Tilak Varma, Hrithik Shokeen and Jofra Archer. They named Ramandeep Singh, Tilak Varma, Shams Mulani, Vishnu Vinod and Sandeep Warrier as their substitutes.
Gujarat Titans named an unchanged XI. Josh Little, Dasun Shanaka, Sai Kishore, KS Bharat and Shivam Mavi were named as the home team’s substitutes.
Mumbai Indians struck early as Arjun Tendulkar had Wriddhiman Saha caught behind in the third over. It was a short of a good length delivery down the leg side which Saha looked to pull but ended up gloving it to the wicketkeeper. He opted for a review but the replays showed a spike as it brushed his gloves.
The MI pacers – Tendulkar, Jason Behrendorff and Riley Meredith – bowled with accuracy and precision and kept things tight to give away just three fours in the first five overs. Shubman Gill finally provided the much-needed thrust in the last over of the Powerplay hitting two fours and a six off Cameron Green to take GT to 50/1 at the end of the Powerplay. Rohit Sharma then introduced the in-form Piyush Chawla in the seventh over and he struck straightaway, having Hardik Pandya, who had come out to bat at No 3, caught at long off.
MI bowled three frugal overs but Gill and Vijay Shankar upped the ante again, cracking two fours and a six off Kartikeya in the 10th over. Gill brought up his fifty off 30 balls as GT took 16 off the over and moved to 84/2 at the halfway mark.
Kartikeya though bounced back in his next over as he had the big wicket of Gill (56 off 34) who mistimed his loft straight into the hands of Suryakumar Yadav at long on. MI had two wickets in two overs as Chawla had Vijay Shankar (19 off 16) caught at long on as he too didn’t time his loft well.
The start-stop innings again got some push as Abhinav Manohar took the attack to Chawla, cracking a couple of fours through extra cover and then hammering a 97m six to make it 17 runs in the 15th over. Behrendorff bowled a good 16th over, giving away just 7. Miller then went after Meredith and cracked a couple of fours to take 13 off the 17th over. Manohar and Miller brought up their 50-run stand off just 30 balls. Manohar took the attack to Green in the next over and hammered a couple of powerful sixes and Miller finished the over with another maximum to make it 22 off the over.
Meredith finally broke the partnership as he had Manohar (42 off 21) caught at long off, off a full toss. Tewatia and Miller though continued the momentum, hitting three sixes in the over which included the dropped catch of Miller by Behrendorff. Tewatia smacked two more sixes in the last over by Meredith but Miller departed for 46(22), trying to hit one himself as GT posted 206/7.
Gujarat Titans aced the slog overs, hitting 77/2 in the 16-20 overs phase. GT brought on Josh Little as their Impact Player, replacing Shubman Gill, at the start of their bowling innings.
