Nita Ambani hides her face, gives Aakash Ambani long, hard look as '6th title' prediction goes awfully wrong with MI out

Hindustan Times

2 days ago

Mumbai Indians were knocked out of IPL 2025 by a spirited Punjab Kings led by an on-fire Shreyas Iyer, marking a fifth year without a title for the most successful team in IPL and matching their longest trophy-less drought since the five years of the competition's history.
For a team so accustomed to success, and therefore an ownership group that finds itself in consistent pursuit of it, a fifth year without a trophy or even a final is a big knock against arguably the most talented team in the tournament. This came to the fore during the broadcast from the ground, as MI owners Nita Ambani and Akash Ambani provided some reactions as the team's defence of 204 derailed and came apart in Ahmedabad on Sunday night.
Sitting in their customary sofa right behind the boundary line, cameras picked up Nita Ambani not looking best pleased after Shreyas Iyer put MI's bowlers to the sword with one of his eight sixes on the night enroute to a special innings of 87*(41). She turned to her son with a look that suggested disappointment at what she was seeing on the pitch.
Ambani had already reacted to a moment earlier in the game where Nehal Wadhera was dropped early in his innings, MI missing an opportunity to swing the momentum of the game in their favour as Trent Boult slipped and dropped the former MI southpaw. To make matters worse, the ball went for a boundary, leading to stressed reactions from both bowler and captain Hardik Pandya, as well as from Nita Ambani, as she hid her face in disappointment at that moment.
With the Ambani mother-son duo having been consistent features of MI matches from their place on the sideline over the course of IPL 2025, they have provided consistent snapshots, some of which have come back to bite them with MI now eliminated. After MI beat Delhi Capitals at the Wankhede Stadium to seal their place in this year's playoffs, Ambani was seen holding up six fingers, indicating her belief in the team to go on and win a record-setting sixth IPL title.
It wasn't to be for the team, as they had 200+ chased down against them for the first time in team history. Instead, it will be a battle between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and PBKS to decide which of these two teams can be the one to lift their first ever IPL title.