IPL 2023: “I was a bit lucky to get five wickets,” says Gujarat Titans bowler Mohit Sharma

Gujarat (Ahmedabad) [India], May 27 (ANI): Gujarat Titans (GT) pace bowler Mohit Sharma feels that he was a ‘bit lucky’ to end up with five wickets against Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 Qualifier 2 on Friday at the Narendra Modi Stadium.

The bowler has been phenomenal for the defending champions in the death overs as well as the middle overs. He has stepped up for GT whenever they have required a breakthrough.
He ended the night with five scalps which included the crucial wicket of the dangerous Suryakumar Yadav.

Mohit revealed the game plan GT had for Surya’s wicket.

“I had decided that if I am bowling against SKY, I won’t experiment much. We had a meeting where we discussed that we mustn’t try too much against Surya, it makes things easier for him. So the idea was to bowl length balls. Even if we get hit for six sixes it doesn’t matter, because we felt that is the length most difficult for him to play his shots. The match wasn’t over at that stage, but that wicket (Surya’s wicket) meant that we were in the game. There was a big relief to take that wicket. I felt we can visualize the final only after that last wicket, we here at GT have won and lost games from baffling situations before, so it is never over till it is over.” Mohit said.

MI looked in control while chasing a massive total of 233, even though they got a poor start as they lost their wicket in the first over of the innings. Nehal Wadhera became the target of in-form bowler Mohammed Shami. He scored 4 off 3 balls. MI was 5/1 in 0.5 overs.

Shami in his next over again did the job for his team. This time, he took the important wicket of Rohit Sharma. He scored 8 off 7 balls. MI was reduced to 21/2 in 2.2 overs. MI reached the 50-run mark in 4.3 overs.

Young batter Tilak Varma showed fighting spirit and hit back-to-back boundaries in the 5th over. He collected 24 runs against Shami’s bowling. However, his stint ended shortly after Rashid Khan hit the wickets. Tilak scored 43 off 14 balls.

After the powerplay, MI added 72/3 on the scoreboard. Suryakumar Yadav was unbeaten at 12* off 9 balls. MI reached the 100-run mark in 9.2 overs.

MI were maintaining the required run rate but losing regular wickets. Joshua Little dismissed Cameron Green who made 30 off 20 balls. MI was 124/4 in 11.2 overs.

Surya was batting exceptionally well to keep the hopes alive for MI. He got his fifty in 35 balls.

MI’s only hope, Surya was dismissed by Mohit Sharma at 61 off 38 balls. Mohit in the same over dismissed Vishnu Vinod at 5 off 7 balls. MI’s batting lineup crumbled with the pressure of keeping up with the required run rate. They kept on losing wickets.

Tim David (2) fell to Rashid Khan, Chris Jordan (2) was dismissed by Mohit Sharma and Piyush Chawla (0) went back with a golden duck to Mohit Sharma as well.

MI team was bundled out in 18.2 overs after Mohit dismissed Kumar Kartikeya at 6 off 7 balls.

Mohit was the pick of the bowlers for GT with 5/10 in 2.2 overs. Rashid and Shami got two while Little got one wicket.