With his third century of the year, Shubman Gill continued his incredible run as Gujarat Titans defeated Mumbai Indians by 62 runs on Friday in Ahmedabad to go to their second straight IPL final.
Gujarat Titans scored a magnificent 233/3 because to Gill’s 60-ball 129 (7 fours and 10 sixes), and Mumbai Indians responded valiantly in Qualifier 2 despite suffering from a number of injuries thanks to Suryakumar Yadav (61) and Tilak Varma (43).
With statistics of 2.2-0-10-5, Mohit Sharma, who was inserted in the 15th over, caused MI to collapse from 149/4 in 14 overs to 171 all-out in 18.2 overs.
With yet another spectacular effort, the 23-year-old Gill increased his tally to 851 runs and established the greatest season total of any hitter by scoring his third century in the previous four innings.
After Virat Kohli (2016) and David Warner (2016), Gill is the only other Indian batsman to have scored more than 800 runs in an IPL season thanks to his explosive performance.
Ishan Kishan was replaced in MI’s batting order when they changed overs in the first innings because he collided with Chris Jordan and injured his eye while attempting to chase down 234 runs.
Hardik Pandya also struck Rohit Sharma on the hand when he was fielding, while Cameron Green had to retire injured after being struck by him on the left forearm.
Nehal Wadhera (4) and Rohit (8), Mumbai’s temporary openers, were both removed by Mohammad Shami in the first over. However, Varma took on the India and GT pace spearhead, smashing four fours and a six to score 24 runs off the fifth over.
Rashid Khan cleaned him up following a 14-ball 43 (5x4s, 3×6), ending Varma’s brief blitz. After the powerplay, MI went 72 for three.
In the 10th over, Suryakumar and Green’s fourth wicket partnership propelled MI above the 100-run mark, but Josh Little’s dismissal of the Australian in the 12th over put an end to their fight.
In his 20-ball 30 innings, Green hit two sixes and four fours.
With 61 from 38 balls with seven fours and two sixes, Suryakumar attempted to extend the game, but he lost his leg stump while trying to smash Mohit Sharma close to fine leg.
Rashid put an end to MI by taking the wicket of Tim David (2) in the 16th over, while Mohit struck again to remove Vishnu Vinod (5) in the same over.
Earlier, B Sai Sudharsan, who cheerfully played second fiddle with a 31-ball 43 before being dismissed out, and Gill added 138 runs for the second wicket after beginning the innings well and becoming cruel in the second half.
In order to surpass the 800-run threshold, Gill smashed three sixes off MI’s game-winning bowler, Akash Madhwal (1/53), in the 12th over.
At the Narendra Modi Stadium, he hit a barrage of sixes against both seamers and spinners to reach fifty off 32 balls with two sixes and three fours.
The Mumbai Indians were the losers on both occasions as Gill beat Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 62-ball 124 to register the best individual score this season.
The 23-year-old also passed RCB’s Faf du Plessis (730 runs) to win the Orange Cap in the process.
In addition, Gill’s 129 surpassed Virender Sehwag’s 122 against Chennai Super Kings in the 2014 campaign as the top batter’s score in the IPL playoffs.
Rain caused a 30-minute delay in the start of the race, but GT got underway slowly.
Gill was given a lifeline at the end of the sixth over when Tim David at midfield missed a catch, ending the powerplay for GT at 50/0.
Gill had great luck since he managed to survive against Kumar Kartikeya twice in as many balls.
When the batsman went down the track and had an inside edge deflect the ball into his pads, Kishan was unable to run-out the batter. Gill then struck the following delivery in the air, only to find the ball landing extremely near to the fielder at deep midwicket.
