Former captain Rohit Sharma rode his luck to make a stroke-filled 81 after Jonny Bairstow made an instant impact on his Mumbai Indians (MI) debut, propelling the five-time champions to a daunting 228/5 against a sloppy Gujarat Titans (GT) in the IPL 2025 Eliminator in Mullanpur on Friday (May 30).

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On a surface which had less grass compared to the one used on Thursday, MI decided to bat first and the batters ensured the team goes into the break with an upper hand. GT dropped three crucial catches, two of Rohit (81 off 50 ) and one of Suryakumar Yadav (33 off 20), and produced another ordinary effort with the ball in the knock-out fixture.

Rohit dropped twice

Rohit was dropped twice in the powerplay before the veteran made the opposition pay dearly for their on-field errors. On the first occasion, Gerald Coetzee dropped him in the deep, and Kusal Mendis’ GT debut went all awry when he bungled a regulation take behind stumps off Mohammed Siraj. It was Bairstow (47 off 22), who gave MI the momentum in the powerplay with some sublime hitting.

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The out-of-favour England batter, who joined the mighty Mumbai Indians days after collecting back-to-back fifties in county cricket for Yorkshire, took his chances early on and was well rewarded.

He targeted Titans’ best pacer of the season, Prasidh Krishna, plundering him for 26 runs in the fourth over of the innings that included three sixes. The first hit was a pull that comfortably sailed over square leg fence before picking the pacer for a clean hit down the ground.

Hardik’s strong finish

Rohit too got into the act when spinner Sai Kishore was introduced inside the powerplay. He employed the sweep shot to perfection to collect two fours and a massive six to take his team to 79 for no loss in six overs, the team’s best powerplay of the season.

Most batters prefer to see out Rashid Khan, but having found his rhythm, Rohit even went after the star Afghanistan spinner. He first went for the inside out aerial drive before slog sweeping Rashid for a six. At 113 for one in 10 overs, Mumbai Indians looked unstoppable.

When Suryakumar joined Rohit in the middle, boundaries continued to flow. India’s T20 captain welcome Gerald Coetzee into the attack with a couple of sixes, one a pull shot while the other was cut that just about cleared the ropes.

The confidence of the top-order also rubbed off on Tilak Varma (25 off 11) who has had a off season by his standards. He smashed three sixes in quick time before falling to Siraj.

Skipper Hardik Pandya picked Coetzee for a couple of sixes in the 20th over to push the total past 225. Considering Mumbai Indians’ formidable bowling unit, GT have a real task at hand.

For the third innings in a row, the opposition team was able to amass a total in excess of 225 against GT.

(With agency inputs)