Gujarat Titans (GT) opened their IPL 2024 campaign with a tense 6-run victory over Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Sunday (March 24).
Asked to bat first, the hosts posted 168/6 in their allotted 20 overs. Sai Sudharsan was the top scorer for GT with 45 off 39 balls.
Jasprit Bumrah starred with the ball for the five-time champions, picking up three wickets by conceding 14 runs in his four overs.
In reply, MI lost Ishan Kishan for a four-ball duck. Naman Dhir also fell after scoring 20 off 10 balls as the visitors found themselves in a spot of bother at 30/2.
At this point, MI badly needed a good partnership and former skipper Rohit Sharma stepped for the team, adding 77 runs for the third wicket with youngster Dewald Brevis.
Sai Kishore broke the partnership by removing Rohit in the 13th over for 43 off 29 balls. Two overs later, Mohit Sharma got rid of Brevis. The two dismissals triggered a collapse as MI lost their next five wickets for just 31 runs.
In the last over, Mumbai Indians needed 19 runs and captain Hardik Pandya smashed Umesh Yadav’s first tw0 deliveries for a six and a boundary. However, he got out in the third delivery for 11.
As it turned out, Umesh conceded only two runs and took one more wicket in the remaining three deliveries, with GT restricting MI to 162/9. Besides Umesh, Azmatullah Omarzai, Spencer Johnson and Mohit Sharma claimed two scalps each for the Titans.
Cricket fraternity lauded the GT bowlers for pulling things back and securing a win for the side after Brevis and Rohit’s blitz.
Here are the reactions
