Shubman Gill’s third century shoves Mumbai Indians out of the IPL

Shubman Gill continued to show his big-game temperament in his breakout year as a cricketer with a third century of IPL 2023, this one in a must-win Qualifier 2 versus Mumbai Indians that set up defending champions Gujarat Titans for a 62-run victory and booked their place in Sunday’s final with Chennai Super Kings.

In the span of three matches, Gill has dumped out two teams, Royal Challengers Bangalore and MI, with six-laden hundreds of a different drive and confidence to underline his status as the best young all-format opener of this generation.

In cracking ten sixes and seven fours during a rollicking 129 off 60 balls, Gill set up GT for a total of 233/3 and surpassed Faf du Plessis for most runs this season and extended his tally to 851. Gill’s previous best IPL was 2022 when he collected 483 from 16 innings; he is on track to double that in the final, given the form we are witnessing.

That his third hundred of the tournament came at his preferred venue in Ahmedabad should surprise no one, for it is here that Gill this year has scored a Test century, a T20I century and in the IPL two hundreds and one score of 94*.

A 30-minute delayed start due to rain perhaps strengthened Rohit Sharma’s decision to chase, but it proved the wrong one – not for the first time in the last two weeks – as Mumbai were left to chase a target of 234. Tim David’s drop of Gill when he was on 30, a diving effort at mid-on, and then a half-chance on 36 when the opener skipped down the track to Kumar Kartikeya and Ishan Kishan fumbled the take off an inside-edge, both emphatically indicated to MI fans that it was not their team’s night.

He found the gaps with ease and called for doubles very early, but it was once again Gill’s six-hitting that set him apart. In particular, a shot he has started to make his own: the one with which he powerfully swats deliveries off the pads square of the umpire to the gap between deep backward square leg and fine leg. Such was Gill’s batting that Wriddhiman Saha’s dismissal for 18 in an opening stand of 54 in 16.2 overs became a footnote.

The over in which Gill was at his best was the 12^th of the GT innings, bowled by Akash Madhwal, in which he struck three sixes – over square leg and then midwicket – to move from 59 off 37 to 79 off 42. First ball of the next over, Gill charged Chawla to hit him into the sight screen and before the over was over he paddled the spinner for four and dumped him over long-on for six more to send the Gujarat fans into delirium.

The century came not long after, off 49 balls, when Gill tucked a ball from Cameron Green to midwicket for one. Then it was back to finding the gaps, as Gill biffed Green for 16 runs in three balls and then steered a wide yorker from Chris Jordan between the cover fielders for four. Looking for his 11^th six, Gill picked out David at wide long-on in the 17^th over, at which time he looked good for 150 and GT for 240.

All this while, the No 3 Sai Sudarshan just kept handing the strike over to Gill. You can debate that with Gill pummeling the MI bowlers, perhaps Sudarshan could have also gone after the bad balls to improve GT’s chances of getting to 235. It did indeed jar that where Gill struck at 215, Sudarshan pottered about at 138. And this extended GT’s muddled thinking about who should bat at one-down, for against RCB it had been Vijay Shankar who scored 53 at a strike-rate of 151 only to be demoted to No 6 in Qualifier 1.

On 43, Sudarshan retired himself and Rashid Khan walked out at No 5 to smash his first ball for four, but it was Hardik Pandya who got the score to 233 with 28* off 13.

Mumbai’s chase got off to a terrible start when their Impact Player Nehal Wadhera – opening because Kishan had been concussed during a mid-pitch collision with Chris Jordan earlier – – was out without making an impact, flashing an edge to Saha off Mohammed Shami in the first over. In three overs, MI were three men down after a rising delivery from Pandya – bowling after five matches – struck Green on the forearm and forced him off the pitch, and then when Rohit miscued a pull shot off Shami and was well held at fine leg.

Tilak Varma went down swinging, bowled off the last ball of the Powerplay by Rashid for a spirited 43 off 14 balls, and his wicket was followed by Green resuming his innings. But it fell on Suryakumar Yadav to keep the chase going and his aggressive intent versus Rashid helped MI to 110/3 at the halfway mark.

Josh Little, Gujarat’s Impact Player, bowled Green with his second delivery of the match and with that wicket the game was officially over, no matter what Suryakumar could do. He tried valiantly, of course, scooping Little for six to raise his half-century from 33 balls, and got as far as 61 before missing an attempted paddle off Mohit Sharma. In his next 11 balls bowled, Mohit grabbed four wickets to finish with exemplary figures of 5/10.