Miller, Manohar, Tewatia set up demolition of Mumbai Indians – T20 IPL 2024

Gujarat Titans 207 for 6 (Gill 56, Miller 46, Manohar 42, Chawla 2-34) beat Mumbai Indians 152 for 9 (Wadhera 40, Green 33, Noor 3-37, Rashid 2-27) by 55 runs

Batting fireworks from Gujarat Titans in the death overs and five wickets shared by Afghan spinners Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad gave the hosts their second win in a row as they steamrolled Mumbai Indians for their second straight loss on a hot and humid evening in Ahmedabad. After defending the big score of 207 for 6 comfortably, Titans jumped to second place with 10 points, the same as table-toppers Chennai Super Kings.

Mumbai’s death bowling came in the spotlight again with Jofra Archer sitting out with an illness, Arjun Tendulkar not bowling in that phase, and their quicks leaking 70 runs in the last four overs, after conceding 65 in the same phase against Punjab Kings in their last game.

After Shubman Gill‘s fifty and a boundary-laden partnership of 71 off just 35 balls between Abhinav Manohar and David Miller for the fifth wicket, Mumbai’s batting firepower fizzled against Afghanistan’s spin duo as only one of their top six crossed 25 and they fell short by 55 runs after being reduced to 59 for 5 in the 11th over.

Gill lays the platform

Tendulkar kept it tight with his inswing early on that had Wriddhiman Saha caught down leg and along with Jason Behrendorff, he kept Titans to 33 for 1 after five overs. Gill then started his onslaught by milking Cameron Green for 17 in the last over of the powerplay, with a powerful pull, a scythe through off and a stunning lofted straight drive for six to power the run rate past eight.

Mumbai brought on Piyush Chawla immediately and Hardik Pandya holed out to long-off immediately for 13. But that didn’t deter Gill’s tempo. He drilled Chawla through the covers for four and smashed Kumar Kartikeya to the leg side next over to reach a 30-ball fifty and lead Titans to 84 for 2 at the halfway mark.

The take off from Manohar and Miller (and Tewatia)

Gill and Vijay Shankar holed out to long-on against the spinners in successive overs, and at 103 for 4 after 13 overs, the innings could have tilted either ways.

Manohar bravely took on a miserly Chawla and tilted the pendulum in Titans’ favour in such a way that Mumbai never recovered. With the field spread out, Chawla started the 15th over with two full deliveries and Manohar blasted both to the cover boundary. On the fifth ball, Manohar charged down and smoked a straight six which made it a 17-run over, the same runs Chawla had conceded in his first three.

There was no stopping Manohar and Miller after that. The duo hammered three batches of back-to-back sixes in the last three overs – with the help of Rahul Tewatia – and gave Mumbai’s bowling lots to think about before their next game. Manohar used his brute force to slam Green for the first of those batches in the 18th over, Miller did it with his golf swings to end Meredith’s last over, which also saw Manohar hole out to long-off for 42 off 21.

Tewatia swept his first ball for six before slamming two more off Behrendorff’s slower ones in the last over on the leg side to finish on 20 off 5, and Miller’s dismissal for 46 off 22 on the penultimate ball was hardly a consolation for Mumbai because by then Titans had crossed 200.

Shami’s masterclass

The WTC final is still month and a half away, but Mohammed Shami was so accurate with his pace and swing early on that Mumbai and India captain Rohit Sharma might have something to smile about. Maybe not. Shami fired in one quick delivery after another outside Ishan Kishan’s off stump and made him look like a deer caught in the headlights, which meant Mumbai never took off in the chase. Kishan poked, jabbed and prodded at many such Shami deliveries to score eight off his 13 balls and crawled to 10 off 17 at the end of the powerplay.

From the other end, Hardik fired in deliveries around 140-145kmh with outswing and took Rohit’s return catch off a leading edge for just 2, before also beating Green’s swings many a times in the powerplay that saw Mumbai struggling on 29 for 1.

The Rashid and Noor strangle

Titans unleashed the Afghan spinners together after the powerplay and Rashid struck immediately. He first had Kishan caught off a heave on the leg side to end a painful stay of 13 off 21, and three balls later trapped the Impact Player Tilak Varma for 2 with the help of a review. Green had by now collected two sixes and slammed a third off Noor in the ninth over even though the asking rate crossed 14.

Noor then landed a double blow himself by rattling Green’s stumps in the 11th over and also had the big-hitting Tim David caught off a full toss for a two-ball duck. At 59 for 5 after 11, Mumbai hardly any chance of bouncing back.

Apart from a cameo from Suryakumar Yadav, Mumbai will be thrilled about unearthing another young batter, the 22-year-old Nehal Wadhera from Punjab. Wadhera manipulated the field to find gaps, hit big sixes down the ground and on the leg side, and impressed with his temperament under pressure even if the chase was virtually over when he batted. He and Suryakumar took down Noor for 15 runs in the 13th over and Wadhera finished with 40 off 21 studded with three sixes and as many fours even as Mumbai stumbled in another big chase.

Vishal Dikshit is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

Source: ESPN Crickinfo