IPL24: Gujarat Giants win " Grudge match " by choking Mumbai Indians in a thriller

 

Mumbai Indians under Hardik Pandya could not beat Gujarat Titans on Gujarat soil.  Mumbai Indians lost in Ahmedabad by 6 runs in the grudge match .

 Batting first, Gujarat Titans scored 168 runs.  Mumbai Indians' innings ended with 162 runs.  19 runs were needed in the last over to win.  Hardik Pandya also picked up 10 runs in the first two balls.  But he couldn't finish it.  Umesh Yadav had the last laugh with the wicket of Hardik  and that ended Mumbai's hope of victory.

 Hardik was born in Gujarat.  He played IPL for that team in 2022 and 2023.  He reached the final twice as captain .  One time he won in 2022, the other time he lost in 2023.  Hardik left Gujarat and returned to Mumbai this year when he was promised of getting the  captaincy and this led to relentless trolls of him on social media and thus created an added hype to the Gujarat vs Mumbai showdown  .  Hardik started the IPL in 2015 for Mumbai Indians.  He returned to the team and became the captain.  And this time, Mumbai's first match in the IPL was against Gujarat, that too in Ahmedabad.   Gujarat's new captain Shubman Gill had the last laugh.  He made his debut as a captain.  That journey started with victory.

 Captain Hardik bowled the first over when Gujarat Titans batted and he gave 11 runs in that over.  Gujarat opener Wriddhiman Saha hit a delightful four off the first ball.  Bowler Hardik was seen bowling with a long run-up.  But could not create any impact .  The question may arise, if Rohit Sharma would have bowled Hardik for three overs if he was the captain of Mumbai Indians.

Mumbai team has a pacer like  Bumrah.  But Hardik did not bowl the first over of the innings with him.  Bumrah came to bowl in the fourth over and promptly  took the wicket of Saha.  The Bengal wicketkeeper could not handle the yorker after having played 3 glorious shots earlier .   Coming to bowl in the second spell, Bumrah dismissed David Miller with the first ball.  So why not bowl the first over with such a bowler?  The commentators also raised that question.

 Skipper Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman did not make a bad start for Gujarat.  When Wriddhi got out after scoring 19 runs off 15 balls, Sai Sudarshan came in.  He and Shubman added 33 runs together.  Shubman was dismissed for 31 good looking  runs but Sai Sudharsan batted very well and scored 45 runs laced with sparkling shots and showed great temperament . 

 Gerald Coetzee took two wickets and bowled superbly in the slog overs .  Piyush Chawla took one wicket.  Coetzee gave 27 runs in four overs.  Chawla gave 31 runs in three overs.  Apart from Coetzee and Bumrah, none of the bowlers could prevent leaking of runs.   Gujarat picked up 168 runs.  Gujarat's innings might have been stopped earlier if the bowlers were used properly.  However after being in a good position  the home team could not maximise their score .

Former MI captain Rohit did not make a bad start with the bat.  However, Ishan Kishan, who dropped out of the board's contract to play the first match, returned to the dugout without scoring a run when he was caught behind off Omerzai . Mumbai sent a relatively unknown Naman Dhir at 3 and he played some glorious shots in his quickfire 20 off 10 balls before falling to Omerzai . Meanwhile Rohit did hold the innings and Dewald Brevis came in as an impact cricketer. Both had a wonderful partnership with Rohit hitting sublime shots and looked completely at ease against the quicks.  Brevis on the other hand soon gained confidence and started hitting fabulous shots to showcase his talent 

Sai Kishore dismissed Rohit lbw for 43 as he tried a sweep .  Mohit Sharma took the Bravis wicket after the youngster rattled up 46 runs and Mumbai still looked in a strong positon . 

However good middle overs  bowling by the spinners Sai Kishore and Rashid Khan kept Gujarat in the hunt as Mumbai started to panic after the losses of Rohit & Bravis as David (11) too fell to Mohit as panic set in .  

Finally Mumbai needed 27 runs to win in the last two overs.  Spencer Johnson bowled the 19th over.  The left-handed pacer took 2 wickets with 8 runs in that over.  However, Tilak Verma (25) hit him for a six on the first ball of the over.  He got out in the next ball.  Coetzee took on the last ball and skied a catch .  One can also question why Hardik gave him a strike.  In the last over, Shubman gave the ball to the experienced Umesh.  Hardik took 10 runs by hitting two consecutive boundaries 6 & 4 .  But he got out in the next ball trying a big hit .  Piyush Chawla also got out in the next ball.  9 runs were required off the last two balls.  But Umesh did not give more than 2 runs and Gujarat won a thriller  in front of 80000 spectators at the gigantic Ahmedabad stadium . 

Sai Sudharsan for his matured 45 runs was the player of the match . 

 Gujarat's IPL this time started with a win and this is the 3rd consecutive year they started with a win in a new season .