A heated Eliminator clash ensued at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur on Friday. A showdown that tested the might and resilience of all players from the Gujarat Titans and the Mumbai Indians. The tension went through the roof as for both teams, it was a mere matter of survival for the next phase of the tournament. After encountering countless instances of ebbs and flows, MI, under the leadership of Hardik Pandya, managed to secure a victory by 20 runs against the Gujarat Titans. 

See also: Top 3 reasons why Gujarat Titans Lost to Mumbai Indians in IPL 2025 Eliminator

The five-time champions found themselves in a hell of a fight to secure their spot in Qualifier 2 against the Punjab Kings. Despite mounting a gigantic score of 228, MI were not out of the woods. GT tried to counterattack and on the back of a fighting 80 (490 from Sai Sudharsan, GT found themselves comfortably placed at 151-2 after 13. But Gleeson and Bumrah's tight bowling in the backend choked the life out of GT as they fell agonizingly short of their desired target by a margin of 20 runs.

As fate would have it, the win turned out to be a smooth afair for MI as they were successfully able to close out the game without facing major hiccups towards the end. But one has to admit, the game reached a point where the pendulum could have shifted in any which way. The partnership between Sundar and Sudharsan got the entire MI camp sweating, including their head coach, Mahela Jayawardene, who was frequently seen passing on instructions to the entire team, including Jasprit Bumrah at the boundary line.

Immediately after Jayawardene tried to intervene, Bumrah was spotted requesting the coach to relax and take it easy, appearing to disregard any advice he had to offer. The animated interaction between the duo sparked the imagination of Jatin Sapru, who was on air for the Hindi broadcast. He had to say the following:

"Bumrah is basically saying, 'Relax, I know my job well. I am here. You stay calm and just give me a chance."

Bumrah calms Mahela down:

pic.twitter.com/qzZegI5iII

— Nihari Korma (@NihariVsKorma) May 31, 2025

Rohit's whirlwind 81 (50) miraculously saved the day for MI as they live to fight another day. Their next big challenge awaits them in Ahmedabad, where they will take on a bruised PBKS in the Qualifier 2 match on June 1. 

It is been a hard runway for Mumbai Indians where a match that was in their hands slipped away from them due to a series of incidents. It was match number 16 of the TATA IPL played between Mumbai Indians vs Lucknow Super Giants where the toss was won by Hardik Pandya who chose to bowl first. LSG within their 20 overs scored 203 runs with loss of 8 wickets. LSG had the same problem that they had in the last three matches. 

Their starts were wasted by upcoming batsmen which ultimately ended in the edge of scores, but yesterday's order batsmen contributed quite well despite their upper-order failure with their captain Rishabh Pant who had a poor outing with bat this season. It was decent ideal score for LSG to defend the target against Mumbai. Though MI had a good outing against SRH that confidence would have boosted them to up for the chase. 

Read More: 3 Players who can replace Injured Rohit Sharma in MI squad
Series Of Incidents
 When MI entered the chase they already lost their openers in quick succession. Though Naman Dhir and Surya Kumar Yadav handled the toughest phase of the game and came out of it, where MI was cruising over victory suddenly wicket of Naman Dhir changed the scenario for the Paltans. After the wicket of Naman, there came Tilak Varma who kept on struggling with his timing which was affecting the required run rate. 
As soon the run rate jumped up with every dot ball Tilak Varma played it put additional pressure on Surya though he was in his zone. But he too got out making a well-made 66 and carrying it to Hardik Pandya. Then suddenly after the final time out Tilak Varma decided to retire and Mitchell Santner came in place. This move too didn't give the desired effect where MI lost the game by 12 runs. 
Coach Jayawardene Took The Bold Decision
Tilak Varma came in as an impact player for the MI team but he couldn't go as was clearly seen, after the match, there was a high debate about whose decision was to remove Tilak Verma where Hardik Pandya's name came around and he was trolled for that. But after that coach Jayawardene spelled that it was his tactical move to remove struggling Tilak Varma. 

Batting at 25 off 23 in the run chase, #TilakVarma retired himself out to make way for Mitchell Santner! 🤯

Only the 4th time a batter has retired out in the IPL!

Watch LIVE action ➡ https://t.co/nH2UGjQY0t #IPLonJioStar 👉 #LSGvMI, LIVE NOW on Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1… pic.twitter.com/NJ0C0F8MvL

— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) April 4, 2025

Look, it was solely my decision to remove Tilak Varma, I think Tilak batted well for us when we lost that wicket and that partnership with Surya and he just wanted to get going but he just couldn't then," Jayawardene said in the post-match press conference."I waited till the last few overs hoping that because he spent some time there so he should have been able to get that hit out of the way but I just felt that at the end I just needed someone fresh to go and he was struggling, when these things happen in cricket field it's not not nice to remove that person, but it was a tactical decision at that point of time and it didn't work.