MI vs GT Synopsis: Rain repeatedly intervened to leave GT needing 15 runs from one over (according to the DLS method) by Deepak Chahar. And it came down to one run from the final ball but Hardik Pandya missed a direct hit from mid-off and GT were home.
When Jasprit Bumrah knocked over Shubman Gill’s stumps with a sharp nip-backer and combined with Trent Boult to induce more strikes, it looked like the game was over. Particularly when rain intervened to leave GT, who needed 24 from 12 balls but were four runs short of the DLS target. But the elements relented and the game resumed. GT just about managed to get the 15 runs needed off the final over.
Rahul Tewatia smashed the first ball from Deepak Chahar to long-off to leave GT needing 11 from 5. He squeezed out a yorker and Gerald Coetzee sliced a six next ball. Now just 4 were needed from 3. Another single but it was a no-ball and Tewatia, whose calling card is exactly this situation, needed to get just 2 from 3. But he slogged to deep midwicket for just a single. 1 from 2 but Coetzee holed out.
Now 1 from 1, and Arshad Khan ran after hitting straight to Hardik Pandya at mid-off. The MI skipper went for a direct hit, though Suryakumar Yadav was almost at the stumps, and missed. Surya flailed his arms to suggest the throw should have come to him but the game was done and dusted. GT were at the top of the table.
The chase was under GT’s control when Bumrah decided to intervene. GT needed 41 runs from 31 balls. Gill was in, and they had 8 wickets intact. But all evening, Bumrah had just one aim: either trap Gill LBW or bowl him with his old nemesis, the nip-backer that will expose Gill’s iffy weight-transfer on to the front foot. He eventually did it as the ball threaded the bat-pad gap left by the leaden feet to crash into the stumps. Gill’s age-old problem, that undoubtedly England’s bowlers will test in the upcoming Test series, had caught up with him.
Gujarat now needed 41 from 30 balls. Doable, of course, but Boult stubbed out Sherfane Rutherford and Bumrah castled Shahrukh Khan almost immediately. And when Ashwini Kumar took out Rashid Khan, GT needed 30 from 15. Both Bumrah and Boult’s overs were done.
It came down to 24 from the final two overs with Tewatia and Coetzee in, but the rain came down to turn it into a Super Over-like situation.
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Around the halfway mark of the game, it had begun to rain around Mumbai, but it held up near the stadium with the swirling winds. The ball began to talk at the start of the chase and Mumbai threw Boult and Bumrah early in the piece, as they bowled five of the first eight overs.
Boult took out Sai Sudharsan, the most compact of the younger Indian batsmen in this tournament, with one that just about shaped away from the left-hander, inducing a nick behind. But Gill and Jos Buttler sussed out the situation, and played with caution. Though runs came slowly, they weathered the storm, literally and figuratively.
At the 10-over mark, GT were 68 for 1, one more than the DLS target. An error-filled eighth over, with 3 wides and 2 no-balls from Hardik Pandya that went for 18 runs where Buttler smashed a four and Gill crash-landed a free hit over longoff, helped.
So did the dropped catch by Tilak Verma at long-on to reprieve Gill, on 35, in the 12th over. But left-arm seamer Ashwini Kumar induced a nick from Buttler next ball from an attempted big off-drive. They now needed 78 from 51 balls.
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It further plummeted down after Sherfane Rutherford smashed a six and a couple of fours against Will Jacks’s off-breaks in the 13th over and also pulled Ashwini for a six.
Rain caused a stoppage in play with 49 needed in 36 balls. Mumbai threw Bumrah upon resumption and he knocked over Gill’s stumps, but GT pulled off a last-ball thriller.
IPL Playoffs scenarios: Hardik Pandya looks dejected after Mumbai Indians lost the Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) game to Gujarat Titans at the Wankhede Stadium. (Sportzpics for IPL)
GT drop three catches
Mumbai perhaps would not even have made 150 and retained any hope in the chase after the admirable work of the GT spinners.
But Jacks was dropped by Sudharsan and Mohammad Siraj on 0 and 29, and Surya was dropped on 10 by Sai Kishore.
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Sai Kishore and Rashid Khan spin it GT’s way
When Sai Kishore and Rashid Khan came on to bowl, Surya and Jacks were making GT pay for the dropped chances. Kishore hadn’t bowled much of late, just eight overs in last six games, and Rashid had been often erring in length. But on Tuesday, Sai not only got the ball to turn a tad bit, but also slowed the pace expertly, hindering bat-flow.
It was classic white-ball spin bowling at its best and even Surya, with his inside-out drives and sweeps, couldn’t quite crack the code. Jacks was never fluent against spin in his knock. There wasn’t much pace to work with and with his ability to get the off-pace ball to dip, Sai Kishore proved a tough customer. He would also vary the angles of the bowling arm to create more variations.
Rashid hit a full length consistently, mixed his fizzing googlies with slower leg-breaks and Jacks, in particular, struggled. Previously in the tournament, Rashid had often been guilty of bowling short and even lacking the usual fizz. Not on Tuesday.
Brief Scores for Mumbai Indians vs Gujarat Titans: Gujarat Titans 147 for 7 (Shubman Gill 43, Jasprit Bumrah 2-19) beat Mumbai Indians 155 for 8 (Will Jacks 53, Sai Kishore 2-34) by three wickets (DLS method)
