AHMEDABAD: Young Indian batting sensation Shubman Gill struck an impressive century and veteran fast bowler Mohit Sharma took five wickets to help Gujarat Titans beat Mumbai Indians by 62 runs in the second qualifier here on Friday to seal their place in the Indian Premier League (IPL). A strong step towards the second title in a row.
The Gujarat team will face four-time champions Chennai Super Kings, who defeated them by 15 runs in the first qualifier played in Chennai, in the final to be held here on Sunday. Gill scored 129 runs in 60 balls and in the meantime gave a great example of his skill of playing long shots. He hit seven fours and 10 sixes in his innings.
Gill meanwhile shared a 138-run 64-ball partnership for the second wicket with Sai Sudarshan (43 off 31 balls). Captain Hardik Pandya contributed an unbeaten 28 off 13 balls in the last over. This allowed Gujarat Titans to post a mammoth score of 233 for three when asked to bat first. In response, the Mumbai team was dismissed for 171 runs in 18.2 overs. Only three batsmen from his side reached double digits. In these, Suryakumar Yadav scored 61 runs in 38 balls and Tilak Verma scored 43 runs in 14 balls. Mohit Sharma took five wickets for 10 runs in 2.2 overs, giving his career-best performance. Apart from them, Rashid Khan and Mohammed Shami took two wickets each.
This is Gill’s third century in the season. He also made the highest score of his T20 career. The record for most centuries in a season of IPL is in the name of Virat Kohli and Jos Buttler (both four centuries). Gill has scored the highest number of 851 runs this season. He has reached the third position in the list of batsmen scoring the most runs in a season. In front of the big target, the Mumbai team initially faltered. With Ishan Kishan injured while fielding, Mumbai brought in Nehal Badhera (four) as an opener but he could not get going while skipper Rohit Sharma (eight) also failed to reach double digits. This made the score 21 runs for two wickets. Both of them were dismissed by Shami.
Meanwhile, Cameron Green also had to leave the crease due to an elbow injury. If Mumbai were able to score 72 runs in the power play, the credit goes to Tilak Verma who started with a six off Hardik and then went on to score 24 runs in Shami’s next over with the help of four fours and a six. However, he could not prolong his innings and was bowled in an attempt to sweep the leg break of Rashid Khan. Green hit Noor Ahmed for two sixes after returning to the crease while Suryakumar gave Mumbai hope by sending two consecutive balls to Rashid Khan for fours.
In such a situation, Josh Little bowled Green and did not allow this partnership to last long. Green scored 30 runs in 20 balls. Suryakumar reached his half-century in 33 balls with a six over Little but Mohit Sharma scattered his wickets in the next over, ending Mumbai’s genuine hope. Mohit also showed the way to the pavilion to Vishnu Vinod (five) who became Kishan’s ‘concoction substitute’. Descended as Rashid trapped Tim David (two) lbw while Mohit bundled out the tailenders to ensure a big win for Gujarat.
Earlier, the match started half an hour late due to rain. Electing to bat first after losing the toss, the North Gujarat Titans team scored 50 runs without loss in the power play. Meanwhile, the sixth over was eventful. In this over of Chris Jordan, after hitting a six and a four, Gill waved the ball in the air but Tim David could not catch it at mid-on. Gill was then playing on 30 runs. Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla, however, gave Mumbai their first breakthrough soon. Wriddhiman Saha (18 off 16 balls) was stumped out trying to play a wide ball down the leg side.
Gill then showed off his six-hitting skills. After hitting Chawla and Kumar Kartikeya for sixes, he hit three sixes in the over of Akash Madhwal, the hero of Mumbai’s win against Lucknow Supergiants. The charismatic opener hit Chawla for two sixes in the next over to make Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma think. Gill completed his third century of the season by taking a single off Green’s ball and then hit two sixes and a four in this over. Madhwal finally ended Gill’s innings.
Gill flicked his yorker and caught it at deep midwicket in an attempt to send it out of the boundary line. This time David did not make any mistake in taking the catch. Pandya hit sixes on Madhwal and Jordan. Meanwhile, Gujarat retired Sudarshan before the last over and replaced him with Rashid Khan, who scored five not out.
