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IPL 2025: Sai Sudharsan, Prasidh Krishna consign MI to big defeat
On a black-soil pitch in Ahmedabad where 180 was expected to be the par score, Gujarat Titans (GT) posted 196 for 8 after being put in. It proved to be 37 too many for Mumbai Indians (MI) who, despite Hardik Pandya’s return after an over-rate ban, were found lacking in all three departments.
While it was not a perfect game for GT either, they did most things right, including selecting a slow surface for this game, as their assistant and batting coach Parthiv Patel revealed during an in-game interview. Their main concern seemed to be Sai Sudarshan, leaving the field clutching his left hamstring after a diving effort. But Shubman Gill later said that it was merely a cramp.
Before the start of the season, Gill said he wanted GT to maximise the powerplay; they were the slowest side in that phase last season with a run rate of 7.72. Both Gill and Sudharsan did their best to improve that number. Each scored 32 off 18 balls in the first six overs and took the side to 66 for no loss. It was their third-highest powerplay score in the IPL. For Gill and Sudharsan, it was their fifth 50-plus stand in five innings they have opened together in T20s.
Once the field restrictions were relaxed, MI pulled things back. They conceded only 13 in the next three overs and dismissed Gill. It was a short ball from Hardik Pandya and Gill pulled it straight to Naman Dhir at deep square leg. Hardik has now dismissed Gill four times in 18 balls in T20s while giving away just 11 runs.
Jos Buttler ended the boundary drought by hitting Mitchell Santner for a six and a four off successive balls in the tenth over. He hit a boundary in each of the next four overs as well but Mujeeb Ur Rahman ended his stay on 39.
udharsan kept GT going for a while. He brought up his second fifty in as many games, off 33 balls, and took the side to 170 for 3 after 17 overs. But GT collapsed after that. On the last ball of the 18th over, Trent Boult trapped Sudharsan lbw with a yorker, Rahul Tewatia was run out on the first of the 19th, and Sherfane Rutherford holed out to deep extra cover the following ball. Despite Rashid Khan and Kagiso Rabada hitting a six each, GT could manage only 26 in the last three.
Coming into this game, Mohammed Siraj had conceded 74 runs off 55 balls to Rohit Sharma in ten T20 innings without ever dismissing him. Rohit looked set to extend that record when he hit Siraj for two fours in the first three balls of the chase. But Siraj finally had his man two balls later with a scrambled-seam delivery. It cut Rohit in half and went on to hit the stumps.
Tilak Varma attacked straightaway and hit Kagiso Rabada for 4, 4, 6 off successive balls in the next over. But Ryan Rickelton was struggling at the other end. In the fifth over, he tried to smash Siraj only to get an inside edge onto his stumps. MI ended the powerplay on 48 for 2.
After that blazing start, Tilak slowed down considerably, but Suryakumar Yadav kept MI in the game. Facing just his second ball, he brought out the supla shot and hit Siraj over fine leg for a six. Not long after, he meted out the same punishment to Ishant Sharma.
R Sai Kishore was not spared either. He beat Suryakumar in the flight but the batter still hit him over extra cover for a six. Suryakumar and Tilak added 62 off 42 balls for the third wicket in which the latter’s contribution was 21 off 22.
MI needed 100 from the last nine overs with eight wickets in hand – far from an unachievable task. But the slower balls were gripping into the surface. Hardik had used this ploy in the first innings, and Prasidh Krishan did the same for GT. Introduced in the 12th over, he had Tilak caught at wide long-on with a slower short ball. When Suryakumar tried to counter that tactic with the supla shot, he gloved it onto his helmet.
Hardik was booed at this very venue last season for leaving GT for MI. Tonight, when he came out to bat, the crowd chanted his name. But it was not easy for a new batter to score freely. With Hardik struggling and the asking rate climbing, Suryakumar decided to attack Prasidh but holed out to long-off. This, too, was a slower ball. How slow? Just 97.1 kph.
When Rabada dismissed Hardik in the next over, which went for just four, MI’s hopes were buried. They needed 73 from the last three overs. While Naman Dhir and Santner hit four fours and two sixes between them, the task was virtually insurmountable.
Gujarat Titans 196 for 8 in 20 overs (Sai Sudharsan 63, Joss Buttler 39, Shubman Gill 38, Sherfaine Rutherford 18; Trent Boult 1-34, Deepak Chahar 1-39, Mujeeb Ur Rahman 1-28, Hardik Pandya 2-29, Satyanarayana Raju 1-40) vs Mumbai Indians 160 for 6 in 20 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 48, Tilak Varma 39, Hardik Pandya 11, Naman Dhir 18*, Mitchell Santner 18*; Prasidh Krishna 2-18, Mohammed Siraj 2-34, Kagiso Rabada 1-42, Sai Kishore 1-37) by 36 runs
PSL 2025 will resume on May 17, with the final on May 25. While there hasn’t yet been a public decision on the fixture list or venues, the announcement confirms the league will end a week after it was originally scheduled to.
This was announced on X (formerly Twitter) by PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi. “HBL PSL X picks up from where it left off,” he wrote in the post. “6 teams, 0 fear. Get ready for 8 thrilling matches starting 17th May, leading up to the Grand Final on 25th May. Best of luck to all the teams!”
PCB is expected to announce further details shortly, and though Naqvi’s tweet did not officially confirm it, the remaining matches are expected to be played in Pakistan. The league, which was postponed due to increasing cross-border tensions with India, has eight games left and the PCB, as well as several franchises, have been eager to conclude the season as early as possible.
The PSL held meetings with the franchises on Monday to discuss specific dates and venues. The most pressing issue is the availability of overseas players, with ESPNcricinfo understanding a significant number are unlikely to return. The asymmetry of player availability may also impact squads, with some franchises more confident about overseas players rejoining than others. To mitigate that, PCB has also considered a replacement draft to make up the numbers.
This also confirms that Bangladesh’s tour of Pakistan will not stick to its original schedule. The final of the PSL takes place on the day Bangladesh were to play their first T20I against Pakistan, in Faisalabad. BCB has said it is in active and ongoing discussions about the tour.
(Cricinfo)
While the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has yet to officially announce the venues for the final and the first two playoffs – Qualifier 1 and the Eliminator – Cricbuzz understands that the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad has been shortlisted to host Qualifier 2 and the final, scheduled for June 1 and 3 respectively.
The IPL is resuming on May 17 and it will have 17 games post break. Six centres – Mumbai, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Jaipur – will be hosting the games.
IPL 2025 will resume on May 17 and end on June 3, as per the revised schedule announced by the BCCI on Monday night.
The remainder of the tournament, which was suspended on May 9 for a week due to cross-border tensions between India and Pakistan, will be played at six venues: Bengaluru, Jaipur, Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The venues for the playoffs will be announced later, but the matches will be played on the following dates: Qualifier 1 on May 29, the Eliminator on May 30, Qualifier 2 on June 1 and the final on June 3. A total of 17 matches will be played after the resumption, with two double-headers, both of which will be played on Sundays.
The revised schedule features 13 league games and the four playoff matches. This means that the Punjab Kings (PBKS) vs Delhi Capitals (DC) game, which was called off midway through the first innings on May 8 in Dharamsala, will be played again, on May 24 in Jaipur, which will be the temporary home base for PBKS. Two days later, PBKS will play against Mumbai Indians (MI), a match they were originally meant to play in their second home base of Dharamsala on May 11. The match that will restart the tournament on May 17 will be played between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Bengaluru.
On the first of the two double-header days, Rajasthan Royals (RR) will meet PBKS in the day game (3.30pm IST) on May 18 and DC will take on Gujarat Titans (GT) in the evening (7.30pm IST). The next Sunday – May 25 – will see GT take on Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the day game in Ahmedabad and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) meet KKR in Delhi at 7.30pm IST. The last league game will be between Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and RCB on May 27 in Lucknow.
The change in venues also means that three teams – PBKS, CSK and SRH – won’t get to play on their original home grounds anymore. With CSK and SRH out of the playoffs race, PBKS will count themselves unlucky to be playing two of their home matches at a neutral venue. With 15 points from 11 matches, PBKS were third on the points table before the tournament was suspended.
The official release said the BCCI held “extensive consultations with government and security agencies, and with all the key stakeholders” before finalising the resumption of the tournament.
The delayed finish of the IPL, which was originally scheduled to end on May 25 in Kolkata, means it will now coincide with the entire ODI series between England and West Indies starting on May 29 in Birmingham and ending on June 3 at The Oval. It will lead to a clash for Romario Shepherd (RCB), Shamar Joseph (LSG) and Sherfane Rutherford (GT), who have all been picked in the West Indies ODI squad. England have not named their squad yet but the players likely to be affected are Jos Buttler (GT), Phil Salt (RCB), Jacob Bethell (RCB), Liam Livingston (RCB), Will Jacks (MI) and Reece Topley (MI), depending on which teams make the playoffs.
The revised IPL schedule also squeezes the gap between the IPL final and the WTC final to just seven days, with Australia and South Africa set to contest the Test world title from June 11 at Lord’s. Both Australia and South Africa are scheduled to announce their squads on Tuesday. The players who are currently part of the IPL teams and are likely to be picked for the WTC final are Australia captain Pat Cummins and Travis Head (both SRH), Mitchell Starc and Tristan Stubbs (both DC), Josh Hazlewood (RCB), Marco Jansen and Josh Inglis (both PBKS), Aiden Markram (LSG), Kagiso Rabada (GT), Ryan Rickelton (MI) and Kwena Mphaka (RR).
The revised schedule will also potentially impact the India A tour of England, which is scheduled to begin from May 30, for two unofficial Tests in Canterbury and Northampton. Several fringe India players, some of whom are likely to be part of the India squad for the five-Test series starting on June 20 in England, will now be part of the IPL when the A matches begin.
For now, the biggest challenge for the 10 IPL franchises will be to re-assemble their squads and bring back overseas players and support-staff members who had begun flying back home over the weekend. The team that could find it easiest to get back together will be GT, currently on top of the table, who had seen only two of their overseas players fly back: Buttler and Gerald Coetzee. The rest of their squad was continuing to train in Ahmedabad. MI could also benefit from the revised schedule, as their first game is on May 21, four days after the tournament resumes.
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