Mumbai Indians produced a superb all-round show to beat defending champions Gujarat Titans by 27 runs at the Wankhede on Friday.
Batting first, Suryakumar Yadav brought up his first IPL century with a blistering knock and then their bowlers made sure the Titans never really got going in their chase of 219.
Pacer Akash Madhwal (3/31) picked up three wickets to begin the slide and then spinners Piyush Chawla and Kumar Kartikeya provided the breakthroughs at regular intervals to never allow the Titans to progress.
Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya embraces Suryakumar Yadav to congratulate him on his knock. PTI picture
Madhwal showed that he is cut out for the big league. This was only his fourth IPL game and he has already shown an appetite to bowl in the Powerplay and death overs. Besides having a lovely yorker, he can bowl the hard lengths.
He bowled Shubman Gill with one that stayed lower than the batter expected. Later he trapped the dangerous looking David Miller leg before in a similar manner.
Mumbai Indians bowler Akash Madhwal celebrates the wicket of Gujarat Titans batter Shubman Gill during the IPL 2023 cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians, at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Friday. PTI picture
Rashid Khan produced a superb effort with the bat too, scoring 79 not out off 32 balls, including three boundaries and 10 sixes. The 88-run unbroken ninth wicket stand with Alzarri Joseph came a little too late.
This match was billed as a contest between Surya and Rashid, the world’s top-ranked T20 batter against arguably the best bowler in this format.
The Mumbai Indians player gave an incredible display of new-age batting in recording his maiden IPL century as they reached 218/5. Surya made 103 not out off 49 balls with 11 boundaries and six sixes.
Rashid too came up with a fine display, picking up four for 30, but it was not enough to stop Surya’s mayhem. There are batters and then there is Surya, who took batting to the next level. He got down on his knees and swept Alzarri Joseph’s delivery from way outside off stump into the stands behind square leg to bring up his hundred off the final delivery of the innings.
In the process, Suryakumar also put on another 54 runs for the sixth wicket with Cameron Green (3 not out), which came off only 18 balls.
Even Rashid lauded Surya’s efforts. “SKY was unbelievable. It is hard to bowl to him and some of the shots he played were unbelievable,” he said at the break.
Mumbai Indians thus became the first team to put up five 200-plus totals in a single IPL season. None were spared as Mohit Sharma leaked 20 in the 18th over and Mohammed Shami gave away 17 off the 19th.
Rohit Sharma finally got back among runs (29 off 18 balls) and the 61-run opening partnership with Ishan Kishan gave the innings a headstart.
But Rashid cut short Rohit’s innings. The Afghanistan spinner, who took his overall wickets tally to 23 to top the bowling charts, jolted the hosts right after the Powerplay and had Rohit caught at first slip.
