Gujarat Titans picked up an emphatic 55-run win in an IPL 2023 match against Mumbai Indians in Ahmedabad on Tuesday. The Titans batted first and piled up a total of 207 runs, courtesy a brilliant half-century by Shubman Gill (56, 34b, 7x4s, 1x6s) and important contributions by David Miller (46, 22b, 2×4, 4×6) and Abhinav Manohar (42, 21b, 3x4s, 3x6s). Mumbai couldn’t match that firepower with their highest scorer being Nehal Wadhera with 40 runs (21b, 3×4, 3×6).
The Afghan spin twins – Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad – picked up five wickets between them. With this win, Gujarat has grabbed the second spot in the team standings, trailing to Chennai in only net run rate, with both teams having 10 points.
Hardik Pandya won the TATA IPL as a first-time captain with the Titans last season and looks to repeat that triumph. The progress in his impact as a captain has been noticeably positive, Aaaksh Chopra
“It’s hard to win a match from a defensive position, we’ve seen this in the TATA IPL. The point about captaincy was very salient. The game started with fast bowlers bowling quite often with discipline due to the movement of the ball. Soon after, spinners were introduced at the right time. They made an error last game in judging the dew and brought Noor at the end and Hetmyer punished him. He learned from that and ensured Noor’s overs were done earlier. Rashid and Noor, two spinners with five wickets, and Hardik’s captaincy just seems to keep improving. Mohit wasn’t playing well but he still sent him to bowl the final over and take crucial wickets even though he could’ve done that himself as a captain. He changed Mohit’s day from bad to good to maintain his confidence. I think Hardik Pandya as a captain is growing and maturing,” he said on Jio Cinema, the official digital boadcasters of the IPL.
Mumbai gave up way too many runs up during the first innings as the Titans especially punished their bowling over the final few overs. Parthiv Patel, an expert on Jio Cinema and a former MI player, sees massive holes MI need to address in their bowling attack: “You’re being generous when you say there’s only little wrong with the Mumbai Indians bowling. If you talk about it being just one time, you can say the pitch was bad or there was a dew factor and the ball wasn’t gripping. This was a dry ground and if you do something like this twice, it shows a pattern is forming. When we were talking in commentary about how Mumbai could’ve closed the game if they took one wicket. They let go a game that was coming into their hands. If you concede almost 80 runs in five overs, the total is bound to be high. In T20, the momentum of a team is also crucial. Mumbai needs to figure out who can bowl in the death overs and which bowlers to use at what time.”
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