Gujarat Titans have registered their fifth win of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season with a commanding win over Mumbai Indians who have now succumbed to a second consecutive loss, fourth overall of the season, after a hattrick of wins earlier. It was a collective team performance from the Titans with their batters stepping up at the right time scoring 77 runs off the last five overs. On the other hand, the Afghanistan spin twins Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad led the way with the ball to stifle MI in the 208-run chase.
After losing the toss, GT lost Wriddhiman Saha early with Arjun Tendulkar having him caught down the legside. Hardik Pandya also couldn't get going with Piyush Chawla dismissing him off the very first ball of his spell. But Shubman Gill played some majestic strokes and smashed his third fifty of the season. However, the real impetus to the innings was provided by Abhinav Manohar and David Miller. The duo added 71 runs in less than six overs with the former scoring 42 off 21 while the veteran Miller thumped 4 off 22 balls.
Rahul Tewatia provided a grandstand finish with an unbeaten 20 off 5 deliveries as the Titans smashed 77 runs off last five overs to end up on 207 runs for the loss of six wickets in their 20 overs.
MI needed a very good start to gun down 208 runs but Rohit Sharma struggled against the moving ball to eventually get out for just two runs off 8 balls. Cameron Green and Ishan Kishan tried to consolidate but ate up too many balls upfront. MI had scored only 58 runs after 10 overs leaving too many to score off the last 10. The Afghanistan spin duo of Noor Ahmad and Rashid Khan stunned the MI batters with their exceptional variations to share five wickets between them. Nehal Wadhera down the order tried his best scoring 40 runs but MI had left too much to do in the end.
The world got a glimpse of Arjun Tendulkar with the bat who slammed a six too during his short stay in the middle. But MI could only reach 152 runs for the loss of nine wickets in their 20 overs to lose the game by 55 runs.The win also took the Titans to second position in the points table with only CSK above them who also have five wins.
