MI eliminate GT to set up Qualifier 2 with PBKS

Strip away everything else, and you can more often than not reduce T20 contests to a simple count-off: who hit more sixes? Mumbai Indians (MI) hit 17 in the IPL 2025 Eliminator, and Gujarat Titans (GT) hit eight.

Rohit Sharma top-scored for MI with 81 off 50 balls; B Sai Sudharsan top-scored for GT with 80 off 49. The difference lay in MI's hitting depth. Five of their batters cleared the boundary at least three times each.

This hitting depth took MI to the second-highest total in any IPL playoff game, and ensured that GT's target always remained just out of reach, even though their chase, advantaged by dew, was alive almost until the end.

And there was one other difference between MI and GT, a difference MI can call on against every other team in the tournament: Jasprit Bumrah. His raw figures were impressive enough - 1 for 27 in four overs - and he also produced the moment of the match, a pinpoint leg-stump yorker to bowl Washington Sundar between his legs, and end an 84-run fourth-wicket stand with Sai Sudharsan.

Bumrah followed up with an 18th over that went for just nine runs - despite containing a six - and that left GT with 36 to get off the last 12 balls. It became 24 off six after Trent Boult's 19th over, and while it was possible - especially with Rahul Tewatia and M Shahrukh Khan at the crease - it's an equation that usually favours the bowling team.

MI's total was built on the back of a blazing start from their new opening pair. Jonny Bairstow, replacing Ryan Rickelton who has left for international duty, smashed a 22-ball 47 on his debut for his third IPL team. Rohit, meanwhile, made his fourth fifty and highest score of the season.

MI chose to bat a day after Punjab Kings (PBKS), sent in, had been bowled out for 101 at the same venue the day before. This was a different pitch, however, with even bounce and none of the seam movement of Qualifier 1.

Even so, GT could have had MI in trouble early, only for Gerald Coetzee and Kusal Mendis - the latter making his IPL debut - to put Rohit down on 3 and 12. Within minutes, GT were firmly on the back foot, with Bairstow tonking Prasidh Krishna for 26 runs - though two of his boundaries came off the edge - in the fourth over.

Bairstow fell in the eighth over, but MI kept punching. Rohit's use of the sweep against GT's spinners was particularly noteworthy, bringing him 27 runs - the most he's scored with variants of the sweep against spin in any IPL innings for which shot data is available - off just six balls.

He slowed down after reaching his half-century, only scoring 31 off his last 22 balls. Here was another parallel with Sai Sudharsan's innings: he scored 28 off his last 21. And just like Sai Sudharsan and Washington, Rohit and Bairstow put on 84 off 44 balls.

The most ominous thing about MI's innings was the steadily rising frequency of their six-hitting. Even though Bairstow and Suryakumar Yadav - who made his 15th successive 25-plus score in T20s - were out by then, they cleared the rope nine times in the last six overs, with Tilak Varma and Naman Dhir doing their bit before Hardik Pandya finished with three maximums off Coetzee in a 22-run final over.

If GT could have done anything differently with the ball, it could have been to use the slower ball more often. Prasidh and Mohammed Siraj dismissed Rohit and Tilak in the 17th and 18th overs with skilful use of this weapon, but GT probably turned to it a little too late, and didn't use it often enough even then.

By the time dew set in during the chase, this option was taken out of MI's toolkit, leaving them to put their trust in on-pace yorkers and the odd hard-length ball.

GT lost Shubman Gill early, with Boult striking in typical fashion - angling the ball across the right-hand batter and bending it back to trap him lbw - to pick up his 32nd first-over wicket in the IPL. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is some way behind in second place with 27.

Then Bumrah bowled a four-run first over of swing and searing pace, leaving GT 9 for 1 after two. But they quickly found their voice, with Mendis putting a shocker behind the stumps - apart from the early Rohit spill, he also dropped Suryakumar in the 12th over - behind him with a pair of big leg-side sixes off Boult in the third over, and Sai Sudharsan finding the gaps with impressive frequency while rushing past 700 - and then 750 - runs for the season.

Mendis was looking ominous on 20 off nine balls when he fell in unfortunate fashion, his back foot slipping backwards when he stepped deep in his crease to pull Mitchell Santner in the seventh over, and trampling the stumps. It portended good things for GT in a way, though, since it was an early sign of dew.

The ball certainly came onto the bat beautifully as the Sai Sudharsan-Washington partnership surged. Washington took a little while to get going - he was on 11 off nine initially - but quickly found his boundary-hitting range and began to dominate the stand. When he hit Boult for two sixes and a four in the 13th over, he was on 47 off 22, and GT needed 81 off 42.

It was at this point that Bumrah re-entered the game. The fourth ball of his third over was a candidate for the ball of IPL 2025, swerving late, homing into the base of leg stump, and Washington's front leg opening up to try and create space for his bat to access the ball only created a channel for the ball to burst through.

It wasn't over yet, but with Sai Sudharsan falling to Richard Gleeson - another MI debutant - in the 16th over as GT chased a boundary almost every ball, MI's grip tightened. And with all the dew about, their execution of yorkers - they usually didn't miss by much even when they did miss - was exemplary.

Bumrah and Boult were excellent, and Gleeson bowled three hard-to-hit balls in the 20th to close it out mathematically before trudging off with a hamstring issue, but impact sub Ashwani Kumar was just as good. The left-armer eventually had the responsibility of bowling the last three balls, and finished with 1 for 28 in 3.3 overs.