A vibrant cultural performance got things going at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad
Playing his first game as captain of Mumbai Indians, Hardik Pandya won the toss against his former side Gujarat Titans and opted to bowl
The undercurrents of Rohit Sharma losing his captaincy to Hardik Pandya were flowing all through the arena with fans showing support for the India skipper
Openers Wriddhiman Saha and GT captain Shubman Gill got off to a confident start
Interestingly, Hardik did not open the bowling with Bumrah, bringing himself on with Luke Wood to get proceedings underway
Bumrah struck off the last ball of his very first over, sending Saha back to the hut
Gill then found a partner in Sai Sudharsan, with whom he stitched a 33-run stand to keep the runs coming for Titans
Azmatullah Omarzai stepped in after Gill departed, putting on 40 runs with Sai Sudharsan
Bumrah then dismissed David Miller and Sai Sudharsan in one over after the pair started looking threatening
Rahul Tewatia and Vijay Shankar provided a late surge to take Gujarat Titans to a respectable 168
It was a fairly straightforward chase for MI, with the side needing to get just over eight runs an over for an easy win
Omarzai dismissed Ishan Kishan for a duck in the very first over to start things well for the home side
Rohit Sharma, with huge support from the crowd, stitched key partnerships with Naman Dhir and Dewald Brevis to steady the chase
Brevis and Rohit put on 77 runs for the third wicket but their dismissals, one after the other, changed the face of the game
Tilak Verma kept Mumbai in the game, bringing the equation down to 27 needed off the last 12 balls
Mohit Sharma, brought in as Impact Player, proved his worth yet again, dismissing Tim David and putting MI under pressure
Spencer Johnson, smashed for 17 runs in his first over, found a way to turn things around, with a lot of pep talks from head coach Ashish Nehra
He returned to bowl the 19th over and, after being smacked for a six off the first ball, dismissed Tilak Verma and Gerald Coetzee
With 19 runs needed off the last over, Hardik Pandya scored 10 runs off the first two balls before getting out
Umesh Yadav held his nerve, dismissed Piyush Chawla and closed out a close six-run win
Omarzai was an underrated part of Gujarat’s first win of the season. He went for 19 runs in his second over but conceded just 27 in three
Sai Sudharsan was named Player-of-the-Match for his 39-ball 45