It was a captain versus captain battle in the Gujarat Titans (GT) versus Mumbai Indians (MI) match and Hardik Pandya emerged victorious in his battle with Rohit Sharma. The fact that Hardik Pandya is an ex-MI player made it even more spicy, and so did his hot, staring reaction after dismissing the MI opener.
The duo clashes on Tuesday evening at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad. Shubman Gill’s half-century (56 off 34) followed by scintillating knocks from David Miller (46 off 22), Abhinav Manohar (42 off 21), and Rahul Tewatia (20 off 5) boosted the Titans’ total to 207/6 in 20 overs.
Pandya, though he didn’t do much with the bat, scoring 13 runs off 14 balls, got the Titans rolling with the ball when, in the second over, he got rid of the MI captain, Rohit Sharma, caught and bowled.
Chasing a big total, Rohit didn’t get off to a good start and was 2 off 7. Inching to break the shackled, Rohit, on the last ball of the 2nd over which was the first from Hardik , moved on the leg-side. But the GT captain, making use of the little help in the air, followed Rohit.
The ball, a quick delivery at 144 KPH, pitched on length and swung a bit and straightened as Rohit tried to tuck it on the legside having changed his mind to play it safely after shaping up to attack. He, however, perhaps, was a bit early in his shot and a leading edge spooned the ball up in the air. Rohit knew his fate was sealed and quickly turned around as Pandya himself stabled himself under the ball and took an easy catch. Hardik gave a stary, epic reaction to his ex-MI captain as Rohit was already on his way back to the dressing room.
Watch: Hardik Pandya gives Rohit Sharma a stare after dismissing him
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MI managed only 152 runs in their innings and lost the match by 55 runs.
