Courtesy: BCCI/IPL
Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya has revealed what led to his side’s 36-run loss against Gujarat Titans (GT) in Ahmedabad in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. Fielding first after winning the toss, Pandya put his team to bat first and restricted the hosts to 196/8 in 20 overs. Pandya, who was playing his maiden game of the season, was the most successful bowler for his team in the game, picking up two scalps and splurging only 29 runs in his four overs. Chasing the huge target, Mumbai batters continued their flop batting show from their previous game against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and surrendered on 160 runs after completing their 20 overs. Except for Suryakumar Yadav, no batter looked confident to be among the runs. Yadav produced a 48-run knock off just 28 balls.
After the thumping from GT, Pandya appeared in the post-match conference and divulged what went wrong in the match for the visitors. "Tough to put it together, I think in batting and bowling we were 15-20 runs short in both places. We were not professionals in the field, we made basic errors, and that cost us 20-25 runs and in a T20 game, that is quite a lot. They (GT openers) batted brilliantly. They were quite exceptional; they did not take many chances, they did the right stuff, and they were able to get runs without playing many risky shots," said the MI skipper
Hardik also added, "We have been doing catch-up since then. At the moment, we all need to take responsibility; it is still the early stages. Batters have to come to the party, hopefully, they will do that soon. On this wicket, they (slower deliveries) were the toughest balls, some were shooting, and some were bouncing, as batters it becomes difficult. They (GT bowlers) did what I did with the ball."
GT outclassed MI in all departments of the game
After losing to Punjab Kings (PBKS) in their maiden IPL 2025 game, Gujarat looked disciplined at home against MI in all spheres of the game. Batting first, GT delivered a challenging target of 197 runs to Mumbai. Their top-order batters did their job exceptionally. Opener Sai Sudharsan performed brilliantly with his bat again and produced a 63-run knock.
Defending the vast score, their fast-bowling unit performed efficiently and gave chills to MI batters. Mohammed Siraj delivered early breakthroughs to the team after dismissing dangerous openers Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton. Prasidh Krishna grabbed 2/18 figures in the game and got the player of the match (POTM) award. GT will next take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on April 2.
