Pressure-proof MI's mastery of the moments

Bumrah floored Washington with a yorker. ©BCCI/IPL
There was a stillness about the Gujarat Titans dugout. Sai Sudharsan was in the middle of lifting the early weight of impending doom caused by Shubman Gill's first-over exit but they were still all on the edge of their seats. Gill plonked himself front and centre of the space, his pads still on 10 overs in. Ashish Nehra wasn't patrolling the boundary line. He instead sat on the side, chatting away with performance analyst Sandeep Raju. The IPL trophy, placed just a little away from the dugout, glistened in the night sky as Sherfane Rutherford indulged in some shadow practice around it.

In the middle, Sudharsan brought his monk-like approach to the team's biggest game of the season. His Tamil Nadu teammate Washington Sundar caught on and GT's percentage cricket was working at that point to keep MI on their toes. Right at the halfway stage, Hardik Pandya had a big decision on his hands. Just four days ago, he defended his call to bring in Ashwani Kumar instead of Karn Sharma as the impact substitute in Lucknow where MI lost to PBKS. On Friday night too, the toss up was between Ashwani's medium pace or the leg spin - of Raghu Sharma. The initial plan, as Mahela Jayawardene later revealed, was for MI to get spin on and use the grip on the surface and the longer side of the boundary to trap the batters. They however, did not anticipate the heavy dew that turned up. Once again, in came Ashwani with the idea to try and nail yorkers.

At 130/2 in 12 overs, GT were still not ahead of the curve in chase of MI's 228/5. Their resolve still triggered a few mini-conferences between Hardik and Suryakumar Yadav, that involved talking tactics and doing some heavy towel work on the ball. But knowing two of the remaining eight overs belonged to Jasprit Bumrah, Sudharsan and Washington had to speed up before the death to give themselves a real chance in chase. The potential game-breaker came in the 13th over.

As the wet ball kept skidding through, Trent Boult's pace variations didn't stick. Sundar saw through them and hit two successive sixes. Under pressure, the left-armer attempted a bluff. He pulled his long-off fielder in and sent square leg to the boundary to set up a short-ball ruse but went full. Sundar, batting deep in his crease, was in a position to dig it out and get another boundary down the ground in an 18-run over. It brought Nehra to his feet and the equation to 81 off 7 overs.

Then came a brief pause followed by a Bumrah-fuelled flip to the proceedings. Sudharsan and Washington had scored 53 runs off the previous four overs, but there was a break before they could try and dig into the fifth. Suryakumar received medical attention to his back and left leg, while Bumrah and Hardik indulged in a discussion. When the play was ready to resume, Bumrah floored Washington with a nasty yorker, leaving the batter down on his face. Sudharsan later revealed that the stoppage did not affect their rhythm as he and Washington anticipated it and stuck to focussing on what they had to do next. But the wicket gave Bumrah and MI an opening that they tore down at the death.

Walking alongside his experienced teammates was 23-year-old Ashwani Kumar, tasked with bowling two crucial overs under intense pressure - and was perhaps marked as a target because of it. Yet, he delivered outstanding nine-run overs, repeatedly hitting a full length outside the off-stump as Hardik placed boundary riders on the leg-side and packed the inner ring on the off.

Sai Sudharsan fell for 80 soon after.
Sai Sudharsan fell for 80 soon after. ©BCCI
Between those overs came another pivotal moment: 90 balls after his dismissal, Gill finally left his seat and headed for the dressing room. The trigger? Sudharsan's failed attempt at a ramp shot against Richard Gleeson, which ended with his stumps getting disturbed. The opener took a few moments to regain his bearings, and drag himself away as Mumbai sniffed a win. Jayawardene addressed his group with a monologue at the strategic timeout that came right after the dismissal, while Nehra took Rahul Tewatia for a quick word.

The finisher responded to it with a stunning six off a Bumrah full-toss in the 18th over, but then too only nine runs came off the six balls. 54 off 24 dropped to 36 off 12, when Boult returned to dismiss Rutherford. GT continued to lose their way through the rest of the over, even as Shahrukh Khan finished it with 97m six over square leg. An injured Gleeson kept the ball away from Tewatia and Shahrukh's hitting arc for three deliveries, and Ashwani closed the game out to give MI their first-ever Eliminator win.

For so long, GT competently kept pace, only to get picked apart at the end by a side that has learned to be pressure-proof in such situations over 17 seasons and five title victories.

"When you have a winning culture, it's easier to try and have that same thing going through. Even when you get a new group, we still have a very experienced core group within our ranks. So, the conversations that we have, planning and everything is a roundabout. How can we get better? How can we push through? That winning mentality itself comes through from those senior players," Jayawardene explained.

"And having that experience, guys who have won trophies does help. And my job is to try and cultivate that for the new guys who've come into the squad. After the big auction, we had quite a few new faces, but I think telling them about the history of Mumbai and how we go, how we operate... And have that attitude that we will never die from a situation. We'll always fight through."

Those last few words reverberated throughout MI's season. In early April, they were mired in the depths of the points table, clinging to the lower half. Now, as June begins, they're just two wins away from a historic sixth title.