Hardik Pandya and Shubman Gill© X (formerly Twitter)
Umesh Yadav kept his calm and took two wickets in the final over of the match to guide Gujarat Titans to a brilliant victory over Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match on Sunday. With 19 runs needed in the final over, skipper Hardik Pandya slammed a six and a four off the first two balls to hand his team the advantage. However, he ended up losing his wicket on the third delivery and his team fell short by just six runs. It was the first victory in IPL for Gill as a skipper and right after the match, Hardik walked up to the young batter and congratulated him with a hug on the momentous occasion.
An inexplicable batting strategy by Mumbai Indians at the death saw Shubman Gill make an auspicious debut as Gujarat Titans captain with a thrilling six-run victory in their opening IPL game.
Jasprit Bumrah (3/14) was at his absolute best in his first IPL game in two years, firing in his express yorkers at will to help Mumbai Indians restrict Gujarat Titans to 168/6.
But Bumrah’s effort was not enough as batters like Tilak Varma and skipper Hardik Pandya failed to complement his brilliance.
MI ended at 162/9 as things went downhill when all they needed was 43 runs off last five overs with seven wickets in hand.
MI thus failed to break their opening game jinx. The last time they won their IPL opener was against Chennai Super Kings way back in 2012.
While spinners Rashid Khan (0/23 in 4 overs) and R Sai Kishore (1/24) gave very little with the ball despite the dew setting in, veteran Mohit Sharma (2/32) used his variations with different types of slower deliveries to turn the course of the match.
Spencer Johnson (2/25) and Umesh Yadav (2/32) were brilliant bowling the 19th and 20th over as Hardik Pandya relegating himself to No. 7 in batting order is something that would need explanation. He did hit a six and four in the last over but Umesh had the last laugh.
(With PTI inputs)
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