Whenever Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya has found things not going their way while fielding, he would turn to his lucky talisman, Jasprit Bumrah to solve matters for him. And Bumrah invariably got the team ashore.
The same thing happened on Friday night too as Mumbai Indians were battling with Gujarat Titans in the Eliminator match of the Indian Premier League 2025 at the PCA Stadium in New Chandigarh.
With a place in the Qualifier 2 against Punjab Kings at stake, Gujarat Titans were getting into a strong position chasing a target of 229, built on a 50-ball 81 by Rohit Sharma (4x9, 6x4) and 47 off 22 balls by MI's late debutant Jonny Bairstow (4x4, 6x3) and 20-ball 33 by Suryakumar Yadav (4x1, 6x3).
After losing skipper Shubman Gill (1) and Kusal Mendis (20) cheaply, Sai Sudharsan and Washington Sundar were effortlessly digging into the 229-run target, taking them to 150/2 when Pandya turned to his pace spearhead. Bumrah castled Sundar with a toe-crushing yorker that rattled the stumps while leaving the batter sprawled on the pitch.
Bumrah's pivotal last over of his spell saw him concede only nine runs. This opened the door for Mumbai Indians and they surged ahead to a 20-run victory.
Sudharsan scored 80 off 49 balls and with help from Sherfane Rutherford (24 off 15) tried to keep the chase alive but once he was bowled by Richard Gleeson, Gujarat Titans' hopes were as good as over.
Pandya compared the value that the peerless Bumrah brings to the table with soaring property prices in Mumbai, the financial capital of the country.
At one point in time, the game was even-stevens. I thought the wicket got better in the second innings. The way Jonny started, for him to make our debut for us, the way Rohit batted. He took his time. When you see important games, all these margins help. (On Bumrah) It's very simple: whenever you feel the game is going far [away], just get him. It's like Mumbai housing prices - he's that expensive! I just need to throw the ball. I just thought we could keep some extra runs at the end. It was important Jassi came and bowled that over, and the margin became bigger. It's going to be very important to recover well.
Bumrah also got good support from Trent Boult (2-56), Mitchell Santner (1-10 off one over) Ashwani Kumar (1-26 off 3.3) as Gujarat Titans were restricted to 208/6 in 20 overs, crashing out after suffering their third successive defeat in IPL 2025.
With this, Mumbai Indians kept alive their hopes of winning a sixth title as they set up a clash with Punjab Kings in Qualifier 2 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. This is the first time that Mumbai Indians have won the Eliminator match as all their five titles have come in when finishing among the top two in the league in those years.
While Bumrah with the ball, it was Rohit Sharma who took the charge with the bat. Mumbai Indians needed him to bat well and deep in the absence of Ryan Rickelton, Will Jacks, and Corbin Bosch, who all left to do national duty with their respective counties.
With the onus on him, the Hitman steered the inning superbly and with help from Jonny Bairstow (47), who came in for Rickelton and opened the innings, added 84 runs for the first-wicket partnership.
Rohit eventually scored 81, after being dropped on two separate occasions, and helped his team raise 228 in the first innings. Rohit acknowledged he got lucky, but claimed one still needs to play well to capitalize on the lifeline. He also crossed the 7000-run mark in the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the process, becoming the second Indian batter after Virat Kohli (9000+) to do so.
Though he starred for MI with the bat, Rohit Sharma felt that he should have got more fifties this season.
I've got only four fifties; I think I would have liked to get more. I do understand the importance of playing the Eliminator. Again, a complete team performance. When I play, it's trying to understand how I can play my best. Today, after having luck going my way, I knew I had to make the most of it. I'm glad I could do that, and get the team into a good position. We knew it would be slightly challenging with the dew coming in. I've played all those shots in the game before, and unfortunately, I found fielders [today]. I got lucky; those catches got dropped. Even after the drop, you've got to play well.
Mumbai Indians would now hope that Rohti would not need much luck to score another big one in the match against Punjab Kings too.
Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians 228/5 in 20 overs (Rohit Sharma 81, Jonny Bairstow 47, Suryakumar Yadav 33; Sai Kishore 2-42, Prasidh Krishna 2-53) defeat Gujarat Titans 208/6 in 20 overs (Sai Sudharsan 80, Washington Sundar 48; Trent Boult 2-56, Jasprit Bumrah 1-27) by 20 runs.
