Both Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians will be looking for their first points of the 2025 IPL season as they square off in Ahmedabad on Saturday. The two teams are winless, having lost their tournament openers to PBKS and CSK respectively.
MI struggle against CSK spin choke
It’s perhaps almost expected of Mumbai Indians to lose their opening game- they’re always slow starters who get into gear as the tournament progresses. This year’s opener against the Chennai Super Kings was no different, as they slumped to a four wicket loss at Chepauk.
Mumbai started poorly, with Khaleel Ahmed accounting for both Ryan Rickleton and Rohit Sharma early in the game. Will Jacks hit two fours before falling to Ashwin, which left the rebuilding job on stand-in skipper Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma.
The duo did a pretty decent job getting to the 10th over, but a fine stumping from veteran MS Dhoni saw the end of Yadav. The former Indian wicket keeper is already into his 40’s, but age hasn’t diminished his reflexes whatsoever as he whipped off the bails in lightning quick time to give Noor Ahmad his first wicket of the game.
Afghan spinner Noor continued to weave his web around the Mumbai batsmen, and also accounted for Tilak and Naman Dhir in a fine spell that saw him concede just 18 runs and pick up four wickets in the process. 12 of his 24 deliveries were dot balls, and most importantly, he didn’t concede even a single boundary in his spell.
Only Deepak Chahar’s late cameo with the bat saw MI take their total past 150. Chahar, a former CSK player himself, scored a 15-ball-28, with two fours and two sixes, as the visitors finished with 155/9 in their allotted 20 overs.
CSK started sedately and lost Rahul Tripathi early, but skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad seemed to be a man on a mission. His quickfire 26-ball-53 broke the back of the chase, and by the time he had departed, CSK had knocked off half the runs required, but still had 12 overs in hand.
Gaikwad’s innings gave CSK a cushion that proved to be important in the latter part of their innings, and despite some middle order struggles, Rachin Ravindra kept them in control and they cruised home with 5 balls to spare.
Will Pandya factor help Mumbai?
Mumbai were without skipper Hardik Pandya in their opener against CSK. The India all rounder, an integral part of their recent Champions Trophy winning squad, was serving a one-game suspension from the previous season.
Not only did Mumbai miss Hardik’s influence with the bat in the middle overs, but they also missed his influence with the ball. Deepak Chahar and Trent Boult bowled well in the powerplay, but once their opening overs were done and dusted, Mumbai had to bowl their inexperienced spinners, and CSK took full advantage.
Pandya’s presence would’ve allowed Mumbai the luxury of an extra hit the deck pacer, and they’ll be glad to have him back against GT. He is also familiar with conditions at the Motera, having previously captained GT before moving to MI, and if you see today’s IPL match predictions, this game promises to be a very keenly contested one.
The last meeting between the two sides, in March last year, was a thriller, with GT edging Mumbai by just six runs. Gujarat made 168/6 batting first. Mumbai were in control of the chase but lost their way after Rohit’s wicket in the 13th over, and Mohit Sharma’s tight overs at the end, gave GT a narrow win.
GT mess up winnable game against PBKS in opener
While MI were clearly second best against CSK, GT were left ruing what could’ve been in their opener against PBKS.
The hosts were well ahead in their chase and would’ve been backed to win the game 8 or 9 times out of 10 on a flat batting wicket, but struggled to deal with Vijaykumar Vyshak’s wide-ball strategy towards the end of their innings. The PBKS bowler, an impact sub, stuck resolutely to his strategy despite conceding a few wides, and the GT batsmen, Sherfane Rutherford in particular, were simply unable to get bat on ball.
At the 14 over stage, GT were a whopping 33 runs ahead of where Punjab were in their innings, but inexplicably failed to make that advantage count, and eventually fell short by 11 runs.
Some fans would’ve also questioned GT’s tactics of using Rutherford as an impact player instead of Glenn Phillips. The Kiwi is in very good form, and can be absolutely devastating on flat batting tracks like the Motera. He also adds an x-factor on the field, and there were a couple of moments in the PBKS game where one could envisage half-chances going GT’s way if Phillips had been on the field.