New Delhi [India], March 30 : Following the clash against the Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar shared his thoughts on the Mumbai Indians' performance in the ninth game of the ongoing 18th edition of the cash-rich league.
Fiery bowling spells by Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj and a half-century by Sai Sudharsan were the highlights as the Gujarat Titans defeated the Mumbai Indians by 36 runs at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Saturday.
With this win, GT has added two points to the tally. Also, they continue their impeccable record of 4-0 against MI at Ahmedabad, improving their overall head-to-head record to 4-2.
"Mumbai Indians didn't look at the race when they lost two wickets for 35. In comparison, the Gujarat Titans had around 129 runs for their first two wickets. After that, it seemed like Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav were trying to build a partnership. The challenge with building a partnership in a chase of over 190 is that the required run rate starts to suffer, and that's exactly what happened. In the end, you have to say that the Gujarat Titans batted better--I thought they got maybe 15 to 20 runs over par. The dew never came in, which made Mumbai's job even more difficult. But despite all that, two losses are quite typical for the Mumbai Indians. They still seem to be on the right track to go on and win the title," Sanjay Manjrekar said while speaking to JioHotstar.
Coming to the match, MI won the toss and opted to bowl first.
GT openers Shubman Gill (38 in 27 balls, with four boundaries and a six) and Sai Sudarshan put the team to a fine start with a 78-run stand. Another half-century stand came between Sudarshan and Jos Buttler (39 in 24 balls, with five fours and a six). Sudarshan played a solid knock of 63 in 41 balls, with four boundaries and two sixes. From 179/4, GT suffered a mini-collapse towards the end as they were restricted to 196/8 in 20 overs.
Skipper Hardik Pandya (2/29) was the pick of the bowlers for MI, while Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar, Mujeeb ur Rahman and Satyanarayana Raju each took a wicket.
In the run chase of 197 runs, MI lost Rohit Sharma (8) and Ryan Rickelton early. However, Tilak Varma (39 in 36 balls, with three fours and a six) and Suryakumar Yadav (48 in 28 balls, with a four and four sixes) tried fighting it out for MI with a 62-run stand. Following their dismissal, MI lost their way and were restricted to 160/6 in 20 overs.
Prasidh Krishna (2/18) and Mohammed Siraj (2/34) were the top bowlers for GT. Kagiso Rabada and Sai Kishore also got a wicket each.