Mumbai Indians were on the verge of breaking a major jinx in their Indian Premier League (IPL) history. With 48 required in the chase from the final 36 balls and seven wickets left in hands, Mumbai stood on the verge of their first-ever win in the opening fixture of an IPL game since 2012. Moreover, it would have been their maiden victory over Gujarat Titans away from home as well in all their IPL meetings in Ahmedabad since 2022. But the hosts, in front of a seemingly-packed Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, held their nerves under pressure to clinch the thriller against Mumbai on Sunday.
Riding on a 77-run stand for the third wicket between former captain Rohit Sharma and Dewald Brevis, Mumbai bounced back from a nervy start to the chase of 169. Gujarat, however, managed to choke the run-scoring for Mumbai while dismissing both the well-set batters as the visitors scored just 23 runs in the next 24 balls.
Heading into the slog overs, MI still had the game in their hand with 39 more to win from six wickets in hand. However, GT bowlers prevailed in the death overs with brilliant performance from Rashid Khan, Mohit Sharma, debutant Spencer Johnson and Umesh Yadav as Mumbai were restricted to just 162 for nine in the chase.
After the match, the cameraman caught Hardik walking up to Rohit and hugged him from behind, but the former captain immediately released himself from it and broke into a animated chat with hand gestures as Hardik listened. It was quite a lengthy chat between two players with Hardik barely talking.
While veteran India cricketer Robin Uthappa reckoned that it was a good sight for MI fans as he talked about the Hardik-Rohit chat in Jio Cinema after the match, Aakash Chopra reckoned the discussion must have been around where MI faltered in the match. He added: “Rohit must have been telling him that in the last 11 years, MI have lost their opening fixture, but we pull ourselves back in the rest of the season.”
The new MI captain admitted that the team lost momentum in the final over despite being well ahead on the chase.
“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,” he said in the post-match interview.
Hardik also opened up on his return to Ahmedabad, the venue where he led GT to their maiden IPL title win in 2022.
“It feels good to be back because this is one stadium where you can enjoy and feel the atmosphere quite lively and obviously the crowd was full and they got a good game as well,” he added.
