IPL 2025 Playoffs: Five things to watch out for in GT vs MI Eliminator clash
Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians play the Eliminator in New Chandigarh tonight (May 30). The winner of the match will play Punjab Kings in Qualifier 2 on Sunday, June 1. RCB defeated PBKS by 8 wickets in yesterday's qualifier 1 match at the same venue.
Here are the key things to look out for in the do-or-die encounter.
Hardik Pandya was the heart and soul of the Gujarat Titans in 2022 and 2023. The all-rounder from Baroda led the side to glory in its inaugural season. Gujarat Titans were two balls away from retaining the title against Chennai Super Kings in 2023. Hardik returned to his former side, Mumbai Indians, in 2024 and has managed to get at least one win as a captain against all teams except one. Hardik Pandya lost all three matches as the captain of Mumbai Indians against Gujarat Titans. Can Hardik Pandya get off the mark?
Note: Mumbai Indians are yet to win a match against the other three teams featuring in the IPL 2025 playoffs.
Josh Hazlewood was the standout performer in RCB's thumping win against PBKS in New Chandigarh last night. One bowler from Gujarat Titans would have gotten encouraged by the amount of bounce the pitch offered for Hazlewood. Prasidh Krishna is similar to the Australian in many ways. They are tall, have the ability to hit the good length areas on a consistent basis, and they both operate as the one-change bowlers. His battle against Suryakumar Yadav is going to be a fascinating one.
Mumbai Indians' superstar Jasprit Bumrah, on the other hand, doesn't need any assistance from the pitch. He went for an economy of 5.75 in his four overs against Punjab Kings on Monday. The next best economy for MI that night was 9.33. The presence of powerplay specialists Trent Boult and Deepak Chahar meant that Bumrah was being used as the first-change bowler. One may expect Hardik Pandya to use Bumrah with the new ball against the two leading run-scorers of the tournament, Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill.
Audacious, flamboyant, and outrageous are some of the adjectives used to describe Suryakumar Yadav's batting. The Indian T20 captain added a new word to the dictionary: consistency. 14 matches, 14 consecutive scores in excess of 25—Mumbai Indians should be hoping that the law of averages is a fallacious concept.
The departure of England's Will Jacks and South Africa's Ryan Rickelton, the two consistent performers with the bat, has weakened the batting lineup, and Suryakumar's performance is even more important for the five-time champions.
Three batters from the same team scoring more than 500 runs in an Indian Premier League season has never happened in the previous 17 seasons. The Gujarat Titans trio of Sai Sudharsan (679 runs), Shubman Gill (649 runs), and Jos Buttler (538 runs) rewrote the history books. There comes the problem. Jos Buttler isn't available for the playoffs. The Englishman scored 37 off 32 balls in the first ODI against the West Indies last night (May 29). The terrific trio has been curtailed into a dynamic duo. Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan are having a historic week, albeit with the national side. The former has been elevated to the Test captaincy, while the latter got his maiden call-up to the Test team. Can the two talented youngsters rise to the occasion and deliver for the Titans?
Rohit Sharma is the joint-most successful player in IPL history. Rohit and Ambati Rayudu are the only two players to win 6 IPL titles. The legacy of Rohit, the captain, is not for debate. It was sealed four years ago. However, Rohit has a questionable record with the bat in the playoffs.
Innings Runs Average Strike Rate 50s Single-digit scores 21 316 15.8 109 2 9
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