At the end of their innings, the Gujarat Titans had every reason to feel they were at least 20 runs short. All that they could post was 196/8 despite racing to 66 without loss at the end of the Powerplay, after Mumbai Indians (MI) put them in at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Saturday.
In the end, though, that proved to be a good enough total as the Titans bowlers ensured to land very few balls in the hitting zone of the rival batters. They restricted MI to 160/6 with the Titans recording a comprehensive 36-run victory, their first in the ongoing edition.
MI, on the other hand, slumped to their second straight defeat this season. Losing former captain Rohit Sharma again in the first over of their reply, Mumbai — with batters like the potent strokemaker Tilak Varma — just couldn’t get going. Also baffling to see was the approach and intent of captain Hardik Pandya.
The skipper, earlier, produced a fine spell of bowling (2/29) that was key to limiting the Titans to below 200. But with the bat, Hardik came up with a painstaking 17-ball 11 that added to the pressure on Suryakumar Yadav.
Surya’s departure off Prasidh Krishna in the last ball of the 16th over practically ended MI’s prospects of a win as they required as many as 77 off the last 24 legitimate balls.
With Hardik far from being at his best, Mumbai simply had no chance of winning from there.
Quicks deliver
Being hit for a couple of boundaries by Rohit, Mohammed Siraj (2/34) hit back immediately in that first over of the run chase. Pitching the ball just outside off-stump, Siraj angled the ball in and cleaned Rohit up to deal MI a major blow.
A little later, Siraj landed another one in that off-stump channel that had Rohit’s opening partner, Ryan Rickelton, played on. Performing in this game, with quite a few Team India players in the MI camp, was key for Siraj. If he continues in this fashion, he certainly can make a statement to those who matter in Indian cricket.
Almost as important as Siraj’s contribution was that of Prasidh (2/18)’s. His 14 dot balls aside, Prasidh took the prized scalp of Tilak in the 12th over before accounting for Surya. But alongside dismissing Surya, Prasidh also bowled a short stuffin the first ball of the 14th over, which took the India T20I captain by surprise and had him grounded.
Following that incident, Surya did appear a tad shaken and not that fluent.
Crafty knock
Sai Sudharsan, in the past, too, had proven his capability to make meaningful contributions with the bat. In fact, that played a role in earning him a promotion as an opener alongside Titans captain Shubman Gill. On Saturday, he produced an innings — studded with four boundaries and a couple of sixes — which was also about showing patience without an iota of recklessness.
Strikingly, most of his strokes were proper cricketing ones, with a drive past Trent Boult off a shaping-in delivery from the left-arm quick standing out. Soon after, Sudharsan timed a slower one from Boult wonderfully through the on-side that fetched him another four.
Sudharsan finished at a strike rate of 153.65, which may not be mindblowing, but he ensured to keep rotating the strike when he couldn’t get the big strokes. One expected a little more from his senior colleague Jos Buttler, who did look solid, only to fall off an innocuous delivery from Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
Sudharsan seemed to be having no problems in playing second fiddle, which was evident when Sherfane Rutherford started having a go at the MI bowlers.
