Follow UsTempers and tension rose in Ahmedabad as Gujarat Titans’s (GT) left-arm spinner Sai Kishore and Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Hardik Pandya stared down each other during MI’s chase.
Batting first, GT scored 196/8 courtesy Sai Sudharsan’s 63 off 41 deliveries. Jos Buttler also supported well in the middle and scored 39 off 24 deliveries.
After being set a big target on a pitch where the slower deliveries were sticking and the occasional one was staying low, MI were struck early in the first over itself as Mohammed Siraj cleaned up Rohit Sharma. MI continued to lose wickets on regular intervals after that and were 108/4 at the end of the 13th over when Hardik Pandya stepped out to bat.
Needing 89 runs to win from there, MI needed some big boundaries from Pandya, but he couldn’t do much against Prasidh Krishna in the 14th over. In the 15th, he played two dot balls against Sai Kishore and then tickled him away down the leg side for a four.
Sai Kishore came back on the next ball as Pandya stepped down the track and defended the ball. While going to pick up the ball, Kishore stared at Pandya, who didn’t back away either and stared back intently at Sai Kishore. Notably, both were teammates in GT as well.
Eventually, Pandya was dismissed after playing 17 deliveries and scoring just 11 runs. Mumbai lost the game by 36 runs at the end.