Shubman Gill, the Gujarat Titans (GT) captain, blamed his side's poor performance on the bowlers in the middle overs as the franchise suffered a crushing 99-run defeat at the hands of the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2026) match on Monday.

Kagiso Rabada had given the perfect start to GT, picking three crucial wickets in Quinton de Kock and Suryakumar Yadav. However, MI managed to recover to post 199/5 in 20 overs, as Tilak Varma smashed his maiden IPL ton, scoring 101* in 45 balls.

Speaking after the match, Gill confessed that Gujarat were unable to restrict MI to a competitive score, despite the fact that the pitch was sluggish and slow, something his squad had detected early in the game.

"Honestly, I think we gave away too many runs in the middle overs. On a wicket like that, I think 160-170 was a par score. But I think there are a lot of learnings for us from this game," Gill said in conversation after the match.

The 99-run defeat was GT's largest margin of loss in the IPL, exceeding their previous worst results—an 83-run defeat over Chennai Super Kings in 2025 and a 63-run loss to CSK in 2024.

"I mean, a small hiccup, but now we've got a couple of games on the road, so hopefully we will come back on the winning side again," he added.

Gill also mentioned the bowlers' inconsistent performance, notably in the middle overs, as Gujarat struggled to keep pressure on the opposing batter.

"I think the wicket was a little bit on the slower side. I don't think we hit the right areas. The length ball wasn't coming on as well; some balls were coming, some weren't, and some were keeping low. I think we could have hit that length in the middle overs a bit more consistently, which we were not able to," he said.

Asked if conditions changed during the second innings, Gill felt the pitch remained largely similar, if not slightly easier due to dew.

"I think it was pretty similar. If at all, it could have gotten a little bit better because I think there was a bit more dew when we were batting," he added.

Chasing MI’s 199, GT received a setback on the first ball when Sai Sudharsan was dismissed by Jasprit Bumrah, and they never recovered thereafter. The innings further crumbled as Ashwani Kumar (4/24), Mitchell Santner (2/16), and AM Ghazanfar (2/17) ran through the batting lineup, bundling Gujarat out for 100.

(ANI inputs)