Follow UsIn the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 encounter between Gujarat Titans (GT) and Mumbai Indians (MI), Hardik Pandya had an intense staredown with R Sai Kishore, with the MI captain even asking his former teammate to “f*** off”. The on-field umpire had to get involved to calm down the situation, but once the match was over, both Pandya and Sai Kishore shared a hug.
When asked about the incident after GT defeated MI by 36 runs to win their first match of the IPL 2025, Sai Kishore said, “He’s [Pandya] a good friend of mine. Inside the field, it should be like that. Inside the field, anybody is an opponent, but we don’t take things personally. We are good competitors. That’s how I think the game should be."
The Titans made 196/8 in the first innings, thanks to Sai Sudharsan’s 41-ball 63 and a couple of good cameos from skipper Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler. In reply, Mumbai could only get to 160/6. Sai Kishore finished with figures of 1/37 in his four overs.
“I wasn’t getting as much purchase today, so had to bowl defensively and had to do a job for the team. The pitch played better than it looked," said Sai Kishore, who claimed three wickets in the first match against Punjab Kings (PBKS).
For MI, Suryakumar Yadav (28-ball 48) was the only one who looked in good touch and scored at the required rate. “He [Suryakumar] played really well. He swept all my good-length balls. When someone hits a good shot, you have to credit the batter.
“I did things which I felt instinctively at that time and Shubman was also there to tell me about Surya because he’s seen him in the Indian nets regularly. Just tried to go with my instincts and played for the team.”