The dream of five times IPL champions Mumbai Indians of lifting the trophy for the sixth time got broken as they lost the Qualifier 2 to defending champions Gujarat Titans by 62 runs.
The match was played yesterday at GT’s home ground Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad and after winning the toss, MI decided to bowl first. GT got a steady start as their openers produced a partnership of 54 runs for the first wicket; while Wriddhiman Saha got out for 18 runs (16 balls, 3 fours), Shubman Gill once again played a blistering knock of 129 runs for which he played 60 balls. Shubman Gill’s innings included 7 fours & 10 sixes and it was his third century of the tournament. Sai Sudarshan and Hardik Pandya also made useful contributions of 43 runs (31 balls, 5 fours & 1 six) and 28 runs not out (13 balls, 2 fours & 2 sixes), respectively and helped their team in putting up a total of 233/3 runs on the scoreboard.
The target of 234 was pretty tough even for MI which had a very strong batting line up and the whole team got bundled out on 171 runs in 18.2 overs. MI kept on losing wickets at a regular interval after Suryakumar Yadav (61 runs, 38 balls, 7 fours & 2 sixes) and Tilak Varma (43 runs, 14 balls, 5 fours & 3 sixes) got out. It won’t be wrong to say that MI might have performed better if they had got a good opening start which they didn’t get as openers Rohit Sharma (8 runs, 7 balls, 1 four) and Nehal Wadhera (4 runs, 3 balls, 1 four) were back in the dug-out by the third over at the score of 21.
The big question is as to why MI’s regular opener Ishan Kishan didn’t open the innings with Rohit Sharma. Well for the answer of this question, we need to go back to the 16th over of the GT innings. MI’s Chris Jordan bowled that over and when he was wearing a cap after bowling the over, he collided with MI’s wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan who was going to the other side and Jordan’s elbow hit left eye of Ishan Kishan. The medical expert came on the ground and Ishan Kishan was taken out of the ground. Due to this injury, Rohit Sharma had to open with Nehal Wadhera and Mumbai Indians Paltan missed their regular opener who is known for explosive batting.
Now we will see defending champions GT clashing against four times champions Chennai Super Kings in the final match of the IPL 2023 which is going to be played tomorrow at the same venue on which the qualifier 2 was played.
Which side do you feel has a better chance to win the match? Let us know your views.