Prasidh Krishna’s middle-over mastery with the ball and a workman-like fifty from Sai Sudharsan set up Gujarat Titans’ 36-run win against Mumbai Indians at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Saturday.
Prasidh varied his pace and length adeptly on an up-and-down surface to end with figures of 2/18 to strangle MI’s chase of Titans’ 197-run target. His efforts were preceded by an incisive opening spell from Mohammed Siraj, who helped the Titans gain momentum early in the chase.
Siraj rattled the stumps twice in the PowerPlay, breaching Rohit Sharma’s and Ryan Rickelton’s defence with scrambled-seam deliveries.
Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav kept MI’s chase afloat with a sprinkling of boundaries. The duo consistently targetted the leg-side fence as they pulled, flicked and swept to reign in the required rate.
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But the ploy eventually caused Tilak’s downfall as he sliced an outside-off slower ball from Prasidh to long on. Suryakumar too was snaffled by a Prasidh off-cutter as the Titans roared ahead in the game witnessed by a near-capacity crowd.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya’s dismissal by Kagiso Rabada in the 17th over effectively killed the contest as the Titans soon stitched up their fourth consecutive home win over its opponent.
Earlier, after being inserted, Shubman Gill and Sudharsan were watchful to start off, with the Titans openers scampering in just 31 runs in the first four overs.
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The introduction of spin, in the form of Mujeeb Ur Rahman, marked a change in approach from the home batters. The Afghanistan tweaker conceded three boundaries in his first over, which included a thumping straight six by Sudharsan. Gill followed it up by taking down Deepak Chahar, to lift his team to its third-highest PowerPlay score (66).
But, the away side crept back into the game through a canny spell from Hardik, who utilised his array of slower balls to apply the breaks on Titans’ innings.
Sudharsan, though, pushed Titans forward as Jos Buttler chipped in with a handy knock. The home side was also aided by a wasteful MI side, which gave away a couple of boundaries through misfields while also conceding 14 wides.
A few handy boundaries from the lower middle order allowed Titans to land close to the 200-run mark, which proved sufficient in the end.
