Follow UsIt was a proper see-saw affair that saw the momentum shift wild.
Gujarat were in a total spot of bother before Rahul Tewatia’s breezy cameo (22 off 15) took them well past the 160-run mark. Unlike previous years, it wasn’t an Ahmedabad pitch that had a lot of runs written on it. It had plenty of support for the bowlers and was slightly two-paced for the new batters.
But Mumbai were having none of that when Rohit Sharma was batting on 43 off 28 deliveries alongside Dewald Brevis, who was looking to accelerate after finding his feet in Ahmedabad. However, Rohit’s wicket gave Gujarat a big opportunity to make a strong comeback in the clash.
Despite a lot of dew, it was the slower deliveries that spelt doom, as Mohit Sharma and Rashid Khan pulled things back, giving Gujarat a narrow six-run win.
“The way the boys held their nerves with dew coming in, it was outstanding. The way our spinners bowled made sure we are always in the game. It's all about holding your nerves,” Gill said in the post-match presentation.
Hardik Pandya, however, reckoned that Mumbai backed themselves to chase the target but the derail in momentum ultimately ended up costing them.
“Obviously we backed ourselves to chase those 42 runs but it was one of those days when we see the score quite less compared to what it could have been in five overs, I think we lost little bit of momentum there,” Mumbai skipper Hardik said.
Sai Sudharsan’s 45 off 39 deliveries ended up proving to be a match-winning knock for Gujarat, and Gill insisted that the Tamil Nadu youngster has been a ‘revelation’ for the franchise.
“He (Sai Sudharsan) has been a revelation for us. We just wanted to build on the pressure and wait for them to make mistakes.”
Throughout the day, the nearly 90,000 crowd at the Narendra Modi Stadium were up for the contest. They booed the opposition skipper, Hardik Pandya, reminding him of his move, and also cheered immensely for their team. Gill noted that and reckoned that the crowd made a massive difference.
“The crowd is one thing, have always come whether it is a day game or a night game and shout out to all the fans who have come here to support us. I thought that was a good score, but we definitely left at least 15 runs there, it was hard to hit those short balls as the wicket got a bit slow towards the end,” he concluded.
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