Tilak Varma’s maiden IPL century powers Mumbai Indians to big win over Gujarat Titans
Tilak Varma’s unbeaten 101 powered Mumbai Indians to a 99-run win over Gujarat Titans, ending their losing streak. Strong bowling led by Ashwani Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah ensured a dominant all-round performance in Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad: Tilak Varma played a knock for the ages as his maiden IPL century turned the corner for Mumbai Indians, with the five-time champions crushing Gujarat Titans by 99 runs here on Monday.
Spurred by skipper Hardik Pandya’s ‘hard talk’, asking him to get a move on during the strategic break after he had scratched his way to 19 off 22 balls, Tilak changed gears in a flash to amass 82 off the next 23 deliveries and end on an unbeaten 101 off 45 balls.
Mumbai Indians’ 199 for 5 was good enough as Jasprit Bumrah broke his wicket-less streak of five matches with a first-ball dismissal of Sai Sudharsan, and GT never recovered from there, getting all out for 100 in 15.5 overs.
The introduction of left-arm seamer Ashwani Kumar proved to be decisive as he snared 4 for 24 to run through the middle order along with Mitchell Santner (2 for 16 in 3 overs).
The defeat also exposed the chinks in GT armoury, especially their fragile middle order where they have carried two ‘non-performing assets’ in Rahul Tewatia and M Shahrukh Khan for a long time.
Between them, they played 24 balls and scored only 25 runs, and it is baffling to see head coach Ashish Nehra placing so much faith in the duo.
The win, after four straight defeats, took Mumbai Indians to seventh place in the points table, but more importantly, it improved their net run rate significantly (+0.067).
MI looked a different outfit till the 14th over when the second strategic time-out was taken. After that, Tilak did the unthinkable to give the total respectability, which looked improbable after the powerplay, thanks to an intimidating first spell by Kagiso Rabada.
At the strategic time-out after the 14th over, TV cameras caught skipper Pandya animatedly telling something to Tilak, who had looked unconvincing till that point and was occasionally booed by the Motera crowd.
After that break, one saw the Tilak everyone knows, as he attacked GT’s fastest bowlers. Prasidh Krishna went for 19, and new pace sensation Ashok Sharma was taken apart for 26 runs.
Before Monday’s innings, Tilak’s poor form was one of the talking points as he managed only 43 runs in the previous five outings. In all, he hit eight fours and seven sixes on the day, with a few shots over covers and some hit down the ground.
Pandya (15 off 16 balls) did push Tilak but hardly did anything of note himself in their 81-run stand off 38 balls. The last six overs yielded 96 runs, largely due to the inconsistent Prasidh Krishna (1 for 54 in 4 overs), who gave away 41 in his final two overs.
This was after Rabada (3 for 33 in 4 overs) got the ball to seam quickly as he blew the top order away inside the powerplay to ensure that it would be another day of a below-par total for the five-time champions, who had been looking out of sorts until then.
Rabada, rated as one of the best bowlers of his generation alongside Pat Cummins, Bumrah and Josh Hazlewood, bowled a good length, faster and fuller, and attacked the stumps to take three wickets.
Danish Malewar (2) understood the gulf between domestic and world-class bowling as he could not get his bat down in time and Rabada trapped him plumb in front. Quinton de Kock (13 off 11 balls) played a square cut when Rabada gave him width, but a short ball saw him mistime a pull shot, which the bowler collected.
The best dismissal was the one where he set up out-of-form India T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav (15 off 10 balls). Surya had clipped Rabada for a six into the cow corner and straight drove him for a boundary.
Rabada came back with a sharp delivery — a 152 kmph ball pitched on a good length outside off that cut back sharply. There was no proper footwork and the bat was away from the body as it went through the defence to hit the stumps.
Naman Dhir, who scored a fifty in the last game, steadied the innings. He used Ashok Sharma’s pace to get a couple of boundaries and kept the scoreboard moving, although he never dominated the attack.
It was only after the strategic break that Tilak suddenly changed gears and played the most memorable knock of his IPL career. It was the fastest hundred for Mumbai Indians in the history of the tournament.
