Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill revealed that the decision to play the IPL 2025 match against Mumbai Indians on a black soil pitch was taken even before the tournament began in the hope of keeping a potent MI line-up muffled.
The plan worked to perfection as the Mumbai batters struggled in the chase of 197, ending up at 160/6 and suffered a 36-run defeat.
"The decision was taken before the first match that the second match (vs Mumbai Indians) will be played on black soil. Yes, that (MI's strong batting line-up) was a factor as well but this wicket suited us," said Gill in the post-match presentation.
The GT skipper said such tracks would make boundary-hitting tough, as found out by the MI big-hitters like Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma.
"Batting on black soil, once the ball gets old, it's difficult to clear the boundary, so we tried to maximise the Powerplay. We can all talk about plans, but sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn't," he added.
With pacers doing a good job, star spinner Rashid Khan bowled just two overs.
"I don't know, maybe this is the first time he didn't bowl four overs. I actually kept him for the end, but I thought the pacers were bowling well. Prasidh was bowling well, so just wanted to use the pacers," he said.
Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya blamed 'basic errors' in both batting and bowling for the thumping defeat.
"There were basic errors in both bat and ball, we were not quite professional in the field - that cost us maybe 20-25 runs," he said.
"They (GT openers Gill and Sudharsan) did the right stuff in the Powerplay, they did not play high-risk shots, they got enough runs
Sudharsan (63) and Gill (38) gave GT a solid start, making 78 for no loss in 8.2 overs to set the foundation for a big score.
MI, however, struggled in the chase, finding themselves at 35/2 after the openers perished early. Once Tilak Varma (39) and Suryakumar Yadav (48) returned to the pavilion, their chase too fizzled away.
"Early stage, but at the same time, batters have to come to the party and hopefully they do that soon," Pandya said.
The India all-rounder used his variations well to return with figures of 2/29 and said the opposition bowlers returned the favour.
"I was just thinking I bowled way too many balls, they saw it was gripping and those were the toughest balls to score off. When you have this much variable bounce, it becomes difficult as a batter. They did the same to me (what I did as a bowler)."
Gujarat bowlers, especially Player of the Match Prasidh Krishna, bowled a lot of cutters to return with impressive figures of 2/18, which included the wickets of Tilak and Suryakumar.
The match had its share of drama too when Pandya was involved in a heated showdown with GT spinner R Sai Kishore in the 15th over of MI's chase. However, the two embraced in a warm hug after the match.
"He's a good friend of mine, inside the field it should be like that, but we don't take things personally," Kishore said.
The left-arm spinner from Tamil Nadu made life difficult for MI batters in the middle with figures of 1/37.
"I wasn't getting as much purchase today, so had to bowl defensively and had to do a job for the team. The pitch played better than it looked," he said.
"Looking forward to this season, I've been very honest with myself and worked very hard. Have watched a lot of games and worked on a lot of things for this season, so looking forward to this season," he added.
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