A vibrant cultural performance got things going at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad ahead of the first home game of the season
Playing his first game as captain of Mumbai Indians, Hardik Pandya won the toss against his former side Gujarat Titans and opted to bowl
The undercurrents of Rohit Sharma losing his captainship to Hardik Pandya were flowing all through the arena with fans showing support for the India skipper
Openers Wriddhiman Saha and GT captain Shubman Gill got off to a confident start
Interestingly, Hardik did not open the bowling with Bumrah, bringing himself on with Luke Wood to get proceedings underway
Bumrah struck off the last ball of his very first over, sending Saha back to the hut
Gill then found a partner in B Sai Sudharsan with whom he stitched a 33-run (22 balls) stand to keep the runs coming for the Titans
Azmatullah Omarzai stepped in after Gill departed, putting up 40 runs with Sai Sudharsan
Bumrah then dismissed David Miller and Sai Sudharsan in one over after the pair started looking threatening
Rahul Tewatia and Vijay Shankar then gave a late burst to the side to take the team total to a respectable 168
It was a fairly straightforward chase for MI, with the side needing to get eight runs an over to see a win through comfortably. Hardik, battling boos from the home crowd, would have liked the win
Omarzai dismissed Ishan Kishan for a duck in the very first over to get things started well for the home side
Rohit Sharma, with huge support from the crowd, stitched key partnerships with Naman Dhir and Dewald Brevis to steady the chase
Brevis and Rohit put on 77 runs for the third wicket but their dismissal one after the other changed the face of the game
Tilak Verma kept Mumbai in the game bringing the equation down to 27 needed off the last 12 balls
Mohit Sharma, brought in as the impact player, proved his worth yet again, dismissing the dangerous Tim David and adding to the pressure on MI in the death
Spencer Johnson, who was smashed for 17 runs in his first over, found a way to turn things around, with a lot of pep talks from head coach Ashish Nehra
He returned to bowl the 19th over and, after being smacked for a six off the first ball, went on to dismiss Tilak Verma and Gerald Coetzee in the same over.
With 19n runs needed off the last over, Hardik Pandya who dropped himself down the orde got MI close to a win, scoring 10 runs in the first two balls before getting out
Umesh Yadav held his nerve, dismissed Piyush Chawla and closed out a close six-run win
Omarzai was an underrated part of Gujarat Titans’ first win of the season. He went for 20 runs in his second over but pulled things back well in the other two.
Sai Sudharsan was named Player of the Match for his 39-ball 45