Gujarat Titans 233 for 3 (Gill 129, Sudharsan 43, Chawla 1-45) beat Mumbai Indians 171 (Suryakumar 61, Varma 43, Mohit 5-10) by 62 runs
Mohit, who hadn’t bowled till the 14th over, used his slower balls to good effect and finished with figures of 2.2-0-10-5.
Unstoppable Gill
Despite scoring at least one four in every over from the second to fifth, Titans reached only 38 for no loss after five. Gill then latched onto Chris Jordan in the last over of the powerplay. The second legal delivery of the over was too short and sat up on this sticky pitch. Gill waited for it and pulled it with disdain over deep square leg. The next one was slightly short outside off. Gill once again showed no mercy and cut it ferociously to the cover boundary.
Luck too was on Gill’s side. In the same Jordan over, he punched one uppishly to the right of mid-on where Tim David dived, got both hands to the ball but couldn’t hold on to it. He was on 30 at that point.
Titans finished the powerplay on 50 for no loss but Wriddhiman Saha was struggling for timing. In the fourth over of the innings, Akash Madhwal had hit him on the helmet with a skiddy bouncer, and soon after Piyush Chawla had him stumped with a leg-side wide. It was the sixth time in 16 innings this season that Chawla struck in his first over of the match.
Gill brought up his fifty off 32 balls. And then he cut loose. In a space of nine balls, he hit five sixes and a four off Madhwal and Chawla. He didn’t slow down even in the 90s; his second fifty took just 17 balls. Immediately after reaching his hundred, he smashed Cameron Green for 6, 4 and 6. By the time Gill holed out to deep midwicket, off Madhwal, Titans had reached 192 in the 17th over.
Titans retire out Sudharsan
All this happened while Sai Sudharsan was playing second fiddle to Gill. But with nine wickets in hand, Titans needed both batters to attack. The 18th and 19th overs combined went for just 16, after which Titans retired out Sudharsan who scored 43 off 31. Rashid replaced him in the middle and hit his first ball for four. Hardik Pandya then applied the finishing touch, hitting the last two balls of the innings for four and six.
Rashid, Mohit trump mighty Mumbai
Varma started by hitting two sixes in his first four balls, and then smashed Shami for four fours and a six in a 24-run over. He had moved to 43 off just 13 with 100% control over his shots. Hardik turned to Rashid in an attempt to put the brakes on the scoring rate. The spinner duly obliged his captain by bowling Varma when the batter tried to sweep him. It was a rare kind of delivery; the speed was less than 85kph. Rashid is usually way quicker.
At the fall of Varma’s wicket, Green – who had retired hurt in the 2nd over, taking a blow to his left arm – came out to resume his innings, and was looking dangerous. He and Suryakumar added 52 in 5.2 overs before Josh Little pinged his leg stump with a delivery that seamed in from good length.
Suryakumar, though, was still battling in the middle. He reached his fifty, off 33 balls, with a scoop-pull over the wicketkeeper’s head. He brought down the equation to 79 needed from 34 balls before Mohit sent him packing. Two balls later, the seamer had Vishnu Vinod – on as concussion sub for Ishan Kishan who got accidentally elbowed in the face by Jordan- caught at extra cover.
David was Mumbai’s last hope. Hardik, as always, had saved Rashid’s one over and brought him on in the 16th. With his third ball, Rashid trapped David lbw. The batter reviewed the decision but he couldn’t have been more out. From the other end, Mohit cleaned up the tail to pick up his maiden five-for in T20 cricket.
Hemant Brar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
Source: ESPN Crickinfo