Mumbai, May 6: Gujarat Titans recovered from early fielding howlers while spin ace Rashid Khan (1/21) rediscovered his mojo to restrict Mumbai Indians to a below-par 155/8 in their Indian Premier League match here on Tuesday.
As many as three dropped catches in the power play notwithstanding, Gujarat fought back through their spinners Rashid and R Sai Kishore (2/34) to grab control of the game in which Mumbai Indians crumbled against pressure.
Will Jacks, who was dropped twice on 0 and 29, struck a 35-ball 53 (5x4s, 3x6s) while Suryakumar Yadav made a brisk 34 but the rest of the MI batters couldn’t respond to the challenge, particularly skipper Hardik Pandya (1) and Tilak Varma (7).
An eventful first over from Mohammed Siraj (1/29) marked the start of the contest when B Sai Sudharsan took a fine low catch at extra cover to dismiss Ryan Rickelton (2) but dropped another at the same position when Jacks smacked one straight to him.
Rohit Sharma (7) was beaten a few times by left-arm pacer Arshad Khan (1/18), who kept it tight from one end. Eventually, Rohit fell to Arshad in the fourth over, mishitting one to mid-off where Prasidh Krishna collected it safely.
Suryakumar welcomed Prasidh (1/37) into the attack with two straight drives past the bowler but he was lucky when a lousy effort from Sai Kishore at midwicket saw a flick shot going through the fielder’s hands.
Arshad did well on his part but wasn’t lucky for a second wicket when a flick from Jacks went straight to Siraj at mid-wicket, where the India bowler spilled a regulation catch in the sixth over.
If not for those dropped chances, Mumbai would’ve lost four wickets inside the power play, instead they emerged the happier side with a score of 56 for two.
Both Suryakumar and Jacks made the most of those lifelines to put on 71 runs off 43 balls for the third wicket but their exit in consecutive overs saw GT’s spinners, with Rashid in forefront, applying the perfect squeeze.
Suryakumar (35 off 24 balls, 5x4s) became the leading run-scorer in this IPL but perished when he lofted one off Sai Kishore inside out to be caught by Shahrukh Khan at long off.
Rashid was finally rewarded for his toil when Jacks, all at sea against the Afghan spinner’s wrong’uns, swept straight to deep backward square where Sudharsan made no error with a regulation grab.
Before dismissing Jacks, Rashid had constantly troubled the MI batters with probing line and length and even burned both the DRS reviews in his bid to strike.
On one occasion, the impact was outside off against Jacks while on the other instance, the ball was deemed to be missing the wickets when Suryakumar missed a sweep.
Pandya fell for one trying to hit out against Sai Kishore and got a leading edge while Tilak smacked one straight to GT skipper Shubman Gill off Gerald Coetzee.
Corbin Bosch’s late 22-ball 27 with two sixes and one four took MI past 150. (PTI)
