The Qualifier 2 of the IPL 2023 saw Gujarat Titans (GT) hammer the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on May 26 and book their spot in the second consecutive final where they will clash with MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on May 28.
MI captain Rohit Sharma had won the toss and chose to bowl first. Kumar Karthikeya was included in the XI by MI, while Sai Sudharsan came in for Yash Dayal in GT’s team and Josh Little was also named in the impact sub list.
Wriddhiman Saha looked good in his 18-run knock but was stumped by Ishan Kishan off Piyush Chawla.
But then Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan (43 in 31 balls, retired out) added a second-wicket partnership of 138 runs. Gill completed his third ton in four innings in IPL 2023 in 49 balls and finished on 129 in 60 balls with 10 sixes and 7 fours.
GT finished on a massive 233/3 in 20 overs with Hardik Pandya contributing 28* in 13 balls.
MI was struck a huge blow as opener Ishan Kishan was unavailable to bat after suffering a concussion and was subbed out with Vishnu Vinod coming in. However, their new opening pair of Rohit Sharma (8) and Nehal Wadhera (4) couldn’t do much as Mohammad Shami continued his trend of wickets in the powerplay.
Only Cameron Green (30), Suryakumar Yadav (61), and Tilak Varma (43 in 14 balls) managed to do some damage to GT bowling, but the rest of the batting crumbled under pressure of a 234-run target.
Rashid Khan and Mohammad Shami picked two wickets each, while Mohit Sharma picked 5/10 in 3.2 overs as MI folded for 171 and lost the Qualifier by 62 runs.
Mohit’s figures are also the joint second-best by an Indian bowler in IPL, with Jasprit Bumrah also taking 5/10 last year.
GT will now face CSK in the final of the IPL 2023 on May 28, Sunday.
The cricket fraternity whole-heartedly praised the veteran pacer and the Hardik Pandya-led side for a spectacular performance.
Here are the tweets:
