IPL 2023: Mumbai Indians playing like champion again

Ominously for the rest of their IPL rivals, five-time champion Mumbai Indians appears to be coming to a boil at the perfect time in the title race as it manifested on Friday evening.

An assertive 27-run victory over a late-surging Gujarat Titans saw Rohit Sharma’s team close the gap on last year’s winner who had until yesterday almost completely dominated the tournament.

Mumbai’s performance, probably the best in 12 matches where it excelled with bat and ball, makes you wonder how much more it has to offer with the playoffs just around the corner.

It was its biggest win and certainly not a bad time to achieve it with only two league matches remaining.

The biggest take away for Mumbai was star batter Suryakumar Yadav who played another brilliant innings, this time an imperious 103 off just 49 deliveries.

The manner in which he got to the coveted mark, with a blistering last-ball six, showed just how hungry he is to reinforce his reputation as one of the best T20 batters in the game.

SKY outshone two other eye-catching performance with the bat by Ishan Kishan (31from 20) and Vishnu (30 from 20).

There was a major difference in the attitude that Gujarat showcased and skipper Hardik Pandya was the first to admit it and described it as a performance that lacked intent and execution.

“We gave away 25 extra runs and were waiting for things to happen and not trying to make them happen ourselves,” he said after a chase that looked hopeless at one stage until it was heroically revived by Gujarat’s Afghan all-rounder Rashid Khan who bowled and played out of his skin.

Khan was the pick of the bowler with figures of three for four for 30 slammed an unbeaten 79 off just 32 deliveries.

Overall Mumbai Indians must feel that it is in the groove again with its second big win in as many matches.

The two crucial points it earned before a festive crowd of close to 30,000 fans at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai have taken them another step closer to getting their hands on an unprecedented sixth IPL title.

Now with 14 points from 12 matches, Mumbai finds itself in third spot in the points table behind Gujarat and Chennai Super Kings.

With SKY and main strike bowlers, Akash Madhwal (3 for 24), Piyush Chawla (2 for 36) and Kumar Kartikeya (2 for 37) in fine touch, Mumbai must feel that it is at the moment at the right place.

Everyone in the side seems connected to the task and in agreement with the overall team objective.

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