Gujarat Titans defeated Mumbai Indian by 55 runs in their IPL 2023 encounter at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Tuesday, riding a strong batting performance and a polished bowling performance.
With this victory, the Titans moved up to second position with 10 points, while MI fell to seventh with 8 points after 7 games.
Titans overcame a shaky start thanks to a half-century from Shubman Gill (56 off 34), followed by a late assault from Manohar (42 off 21) and Miller (46 off 22), who shared a 71-run partnership. With his unbroken 20 off 5, Rahul Tewatia helped GT score 207/6 in their allotted 20 overs, putting the final touches on the innings.
Rashid Khan (2-27) and Noor Ahmad (3-37) of Afghanistan shone with the ball as Gujarat Titans held Mumbai Indians to 152/9 and won easily by 55 runs.
Chasing the enormous 208-run mark, MI got off to a terrible start when they lost captain Rohit Sharma for a cheap four in the Power-play. The ball chipped back to the bowler when Rohit attempted to flick it on the leg-side, and Hardik Pandya made the catch.
With the exception of the fourth over, when Hardik Pandya gave up two significant hits to Cameron Green as Mumbai managed to score just 29 runs and lost a critical wicket of their captain in the Power-play, Titans’ bowlers managed to control the run rate throughout the whole chase.
Then, MI’s attempt to score runs was further hampered by Rashid Khan’s double strike in the ninth over. Ishan Kishan was first dismissed for 13, and then the leg-spinner caught Impact Player Tilak Verma with a googly for lbw, leaving MI in trouble at 45/3 in eight overs.
At the midway point of the chase, MI were reeling at 58/3, and the asking run rate had risen to nearly 15 runs per over. The captain Pandya maintained a tight grip on the game by judiciously rotating his bowlers.
The Mumbai Indians were then dealt a further blow when Noor Ahmad removed Cameron Green for 33 and Tim David for a duck. With 59 runs scored in 11 overs, half of the Mumbai team was back in the pavilion.
Before Ahmad caught and bolded SKY on the final ball of the over, making the chase more more difficult for MI, Suryakumar smacked Rashid for two boundaries and six in the 12th over, and Nehal Wadhera joined the celebration by hitting a few of boundaries and a maximum in the following overs.
Mumbai Indians scored 83 runs in between seven and fifteen overs thanks to a few huge overs, which left them needing 96 runs in 30 balls to win.
Before Piyush Chawla was run out in the 18th over, Wadhera and Chawla held strong and made an effort to battle their way to a 45-run partnership. Wadhera’s 40-run inning came to an end in the same over when the hitter mistimed a scoop shot, causing the ball to fly straight to the fine leg fielder.
Even though MI had little chance of winning, Arjun Tendulkar attempted a six in the penultimate over before falling on the fourth ball, giving Titans a decisive 55-run victory.
Earlier, when given the opportunity to bat first, GT had a slow start because to the early loss of opener Wriddhiman Saha. Arjun Tendulkar and Jason Behrendorff’s disciplined bowling held the batsmen at bay until Gill changed his approach in the sixth over, hitting Cameron Green for back-to-back boundaries and then a six the following ball to move the Titans to 50/1 in the Power-play.
MI turned the tables after a costly sixth over when Chawla sent captain Hardik Pandya packing for 13. GT were 84/2 at the midway point when Gill soon got a boundary and finished up his 17th IPL fifty with a single off 30 balls.
Kartikeya’s 56-point takedown of Gill gave MI the much-needed breakthrough. The Titans were then dealt some more bad news when Chawla sent Vijay Shankar back to the hut for 19.
Miller and Manohar sped up the innings with their hits, scoring 42 runs in the next three overs, and stitching together an incredible 71-run partnership off 35 balls. Meredith ended the partnership in the following over when he caught Manoher with his full throw.
However, Miller and Rahul Tewatia persisted in their assault. As the Titans reached 207 with the loss of only six wickets, the latter hit two more sixes in the last over, Behrendorff removed Miller to prevent him from reaching fifty, and Rashid Khan completed the innings with a double.
Brief ratings:
Mumbai Indians 152/9 in 20 overs (Cameron Green 33, Nehal Wadhera 40; Noor Ahmad 3-27, Rashid Khan 2-27, Mohit Sharma 2-38) were defeated by Gujarat Titans 207/6 in 20 overs (Shubman Gill 56, David Miller 46, Abhinav Monahar 42; Piyush Chawla 2-34) by 55 runs.
