Gujarat Titans (GT) delivered one of the classic performances with both bat & ball and defeated MI by 36 runs. The run margin would seem okay, but GT bowlers mixed their line & length quite brilliantly with foxy variations. Prasidh Krishna was the pick of the speedsters who was economical and gave away a mere 18 runs in his 4 overs & took 2 scalps.
Sai Sudarshan’s calculated gigantic knock & co demolish MI
MI skipper Hardik Pandya asked GT to bat first on a black soil wicket. The surface had a lot of cracks in it, it wasn’t a batting paradise wicket at all. During the start of the innings, Shubman Gill & Sai Sudharsan were seen stepping down the track and negate the threat of the swing. The likes of Trent Boult & Deepak Chahar were spot on with their line & lengths.
In the last over of powerplay, Deepak Chahar conceded 20 runs and GT scored 66 runs in first 6 overs. MI’s feeling was quite sloppy, again there looked miscommunication between Hardik Pandya & fielders. Hardik Pandya, the pacer, though did his job quite decently by getting rid of Shubman Gill in 9th over when he gave catching practice to deep square leg. Gill had to go after scoring 38 runs in 27 balls.
Astoundingly, MI didn’t name Vignesh Puthur in the playing 11, nor in the impact player substitute list despite taking a 3 wicket haul against CSK in previous match. Jos Buttler got a reprieve when he was on 2 as he was dropped by the debutant Satyanarayan Raju & score was 81-1 in 9.4 overs. Buttler then went to play a fiery cameo of 39 runs in 24 balls & struck 5 fours and 1 six.
Sai Sudharsan was the glue that kept GT’s innings going. Sai Sudharsan. In the last 5 overs, GT scored 56 runs and lost 6 wickets. The likes of Shahrukh Khan & Sherfane Rutherford couldn’t convert their starts to a destructive cameo. Sai Sudharsan’s eclectic knock of 63 runs in 41 balls laid the foundation for batters as he switched to both roles of anchor & aggressor quite sharply.
Mujeeb-ur-Rahman was taken to the cleaners his 2 over spell, he gave away 28 runs. Hardik Pandya used a lot of pace off deliveries to dupe the batters, and he was quite successful. The MI skipper took 2 wickets and conceded 29 runs in his quota of 4 overs. The Ahmedabad wicket is often considered a high-scoring venue with the average score in excess of 200, but this wicket got a bit spicy at end of GT’s batting, and a 197 target was going to be a steep run-chase.
Prasidh Krishna’s quick burst leaves MI in tatters
In the opening over, Mohammed Siraj cleaned up Rohit Sharma by bowling an inswinging back-of-the-length delivery. Before the dismissal, Rohit just muscled the ball over the boundary ropes back-to-back times & Siraj targeted Rohit’s off-stump weakness & knocked him over. Rohit’s string of low scores continued in IPL, with this time he scored 8 runs as compared to the duck against CSK.
Ryan Rickelton too was castled by Siraj in the 5th over of the match. The pitch at Ahmedabad had a difference of low bounce difference of 10 cm as compared to the PBKS contest. In the 12th over, Prasidh Krishna was introduced in the bowling attack, and he got rid of the dangerous-looking Tilak Varma, who couldn’t control the pull shot and gave a catch to the deep mid-wicket fielder Rahul Tewatia.
Robin Minz came in the innings as an impact player sub in place of Satyanarayana Raju. Robin Minz came ahead of Hardik Pandya when MI’s score was 97-3 & they required another 100 runs to win from 8.3 overs. Robin Minz’s inexperience at the big stage was seen clearly.
Hardik Pandya & Suryakumar Yadav needed a miracle to chase down 87 runs in 7 overs as the pitch turned into a minefield. Hardik Pandya took the game too much deep by playing defensive brand of cricket and gave too much respect to the bowlers. Despite being played at Ahmedabad in 2022 & 2023 edition, it was quite mind-boggling to see MI captain quite a bit completely clueless.
Hardik’s knock of 11 runs in 17 balls raised a lot of outrage from fans & experts. GT’s bowlers need to be lauded who bowled quite wicket to wicket and bowled straight line & lengths. GT won the contest by 36 runs and they have opened their account in IPL 2025 & MI are yet to win a game in competition.
What lies ahead for MI & GT
GT’s entire unit seemed to have multiple plans to tackle MI’s star-studded batting unit. Even in this modern era, the rising cricketer Sai Sudharsan showed the importance of playing long innings rather than playing 10-20 ball cameo and entertaining everyone. GT looks a formidable team, their next encounter is against RCB on 2nd April at Bengaluru, which is quite merciless to bowlers.
MI, on the other hand, are quite slow starters, which the entire league fraternity knows, but the way they lost the game against GT is quite alarming. Rohit Sharma’s form at the top of the order is concerning, given Ryan Rickelton is quite a newbie to IPL. MI’s next clash is against KKR on 31st March at Mumbai, which can be said as a must-win clash, given that this time all teams are evenly matched in IPL 2025.
Also Read:Â GT vs MI: GT’s Massive Victory Against MI Breaks A Lot Of Records