Lack of firepower at the top continued to haunt Mumbai Indians (MI) as they lost to defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) by a massive margin of 55 runs at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on April 25 (Tuesday). After a slow start, MI failed to make a comeback as Afghanistan's spin-bowling duo of Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad did not let them get back on track. As a result, Rohit Sharma's men sustained their fourth defeat of the season while Hardik Pandya's men secured their fifth victory of the ongoing campaign.
During the match when GT were batting, MI captain Rohit lost his temper and was visibly angry at Piyush Chawla, who made a horrendous mistake on the field that cost the Men in Blue four runs. The incident occurred in the 17th over of GT's innings when Riley Meredith bowled a terrific yorker and Abhinav Manohar managed to squeeze the ball to the short third man. Chawla, who was stationed in the region, lost concentration and left the ball slip through his legs. After the midfield, the ball raced to the boundary and the momentum seemed to have shifted in GT's corner.
Once the replay was shown, Rohit appeared to have been fuming with anger as he screamed at Chawla for making the mistake. Chawla too was disappointed with himself for making the horrendous mistake.
After conceding 207/6 in 20 overs, MI's run chase got off to a disastrous start. Pandya got the wicket of Rohit in his first over. He faced eight deliveries and scored just two runs. Ishan Kishan struggled to score during fielding restrictions. Green hit the first six of the innings in the third over. After powerplay overs, MI had 29/1 on the board. In the eighth over, Rashid Khan ended Kishan's troubled stay at the crease. He scored just 13 runs from 21 balls including just one boundary. In the same over he got Tilak Varma lbw. At the halfway stage, MI were 58/3.
In the 11th over, Noor got the wicket of Green. He scored 33 runs from 26 balls including three sixes. In the same over, Tim David went for the big shot and got out for a two-ball duck. Suryakumar Yadav ended Rashid's spell with a four and a six. In the next over, Nehal Wadhera hit Ahmad for a four and a six. Suryakumar got a boundary as well and then handed a catch to Ahmad. He scored 23 runs from 12 balls including three fours and a six.
In the 15th over, Wadhera hit a boundary as MI crossed the 100-run mark. Wadhera hit a few sixes. Piyush Chawla hit a six too before getting run out in the 18th over. Chawla scored 18 runs from 12 balls. In the same over, Wadhera got out to Mohit Sharma. He scored 40 runs from 21 balls including three fours and three sixes. In the penultimate over, Arjun hit Mohit for the first six of his IPL career. He took the aerial route again but got caught at long-on. MI posted 152/9 and lost the match by 55 runs.
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