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4 days ago
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Jasprit Bumrah snaps up Washington Sundar. (Express Photo | Kamleshwar Singh)
Mumbai Indians defeated Gujarat Titans to gain a measure of revenge for their 2023 playoffs loss as the Hardik Pandya-led team defeated his former side by 20 runs. As a result, Gujarat Titans were eliminated and Mumbai will now move on to Qualifier 2 to face Punjab Kings for a place in the final vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Sai Sudharsan starred with a well-paced 80 and allrounder Washington Sundar scored an important 48 but their partnership was broken by Jasprit Bumrah who accounted for Sundar while Richard Gleeson sent back Sudharsan as GT’s challenge was snuffed out.
Earlier, Rohit Sharma rode his luck to make a stroke-filled 81 after Jonny Bairstow made instant impact on his Mumbai Indians debut, propelling the five-time champions to a daunting 228/5.
On a surface which had less grass compared to the one used on Thursday, Mumbai Indians decided to bat first and the batters ensured the team goes into the break with an upper-hand. Titans dropped three crucial catches — two of Rohit (81 off 50 ) and one of Suryakumar Yadav (33 off 20) – and produced another ordinary effort with the ball in the knock-out fixture.
Rohit was dropped twice in the powerplay before veteran made the opposition pay dearly for their on-field errors. On the first occasion, Gerald Coetzee dropped him in the deep and Kusal Mendis’ GT debut went all awry when he bungled a regulation take behind stumps off Mohammed Siraj. It was Bairstow (47 off 22), who gave Mumbai Indians the momentum in the powerplay with some sublime hitting.
The out of favour England batter, who joined the mighty Mumbai Indians days after collecting back-to-back fifties in county cricket for Yorkshire, took his chances early on and was well rewarded. He targeted Titans’ best pacer of the season, Prasidh Krishna, plundering him for 26 runs in the fourth over of the innings that included three sixes. The first hit was a pull that comfortably sailed over square leg fence before picking the pacer for a clean hit down the ground.
English (US) ·