Tilak Varma played a brilliant innings, scoring 101* off just 45 balls. It was his first century of the tournament and helped Mumbai Indians reach 199/5. The pitch had low bounce, making batting a bit tricky. Gujarat Titans won the toss and chose to bowl first. Mumbai Indians gave debuts to Danish Malewar and Krish Bhagat. Malewar opened with Quinton de Kock but got out early for just 2 runs. Kagiso Rabada dismissed him with a strong inswinging delivery.
De Kock smashed a maximum in the same over but perished in Rabada’s next miscuing a pull straight back to the bowler. Naman Dhir at number 3 steadied the ship, Suryakumar Yadav looked to get a good start with a six and a four against Rabada but the Protean had the last laugh sending his stumps flying with a 152 kph delivery.
Tilak Varma’s Stunning Century Powers Mumbai Indians to 199/5 Against Gujarat Titans
Tilak Varma joined Dhir at the crease and maneuvered the innings forward in a 52-run stand which was broken by the in-form Prasidh Krishna who sent Dhir back for 45 off 32 balls. His knock comprising of 6 fours and a maximum. Skipper Hardik Pandya joined Tilak but struggled to get going managing only 15 in 16 balls. Varma changed gears after 14 overs when the 2nd strategic timeout was taken. MI were 103/4 after 14 overs.
Tilak started the assault by attacking Prasidh, hitting a six and 2 fours on the first 3 balls and taking 19 off the over. Kagiso Rabada leaked only 4 runs and finished his spell with 3/33. Rashid Khan got the treatment in the next over with a 6 and 4 to begin as 15 were hammered in the 17th over but the game totally turned around in the 18th over when Ashok Sharma went for 26 runs. Tilak smashing 6, 4, 4, 6, 6 before facing a dot ball that hit his body.
Mohammed Siraj finished with 1/25 in the penultimate over going for 10 runs but dismissing Pandya as well. Prasidh, tasked with the final over couldn’t contain the beast within Tilak who smothered 2 fours and as many sixes and moved from 80 off 40 to 101 in 45 balls, hitting the last 2 deliveries for 10 runs to get into three digits. 8 fours and 7 maximums comprised in his knock.
Only Rabada (3/33), Siraj (1/25) and Rashid (0/31) had figures worth mentioning. Ashok Sharma, Prasidh Krishna and Washington Sundar were taken to the cleaners with some brilliant boundary hitting display from the Hyderabad left-hander.