Mumbai Indians 199 for 5 (Tilak 101*, Dhir 45, Rabada 3-33) beat Gujarat Titans 100 (Washington 26, Ashwani 4-24, Santner 2-16, Ghazanfar 2-17) by 99 runs
Mumbai Indians (MI) needed something dramatic to scrape themselves off the bottom of the IPL 2026 table, and Tilak Varma provided that with a record-breaking hundred to lift them from 103 for 4 in 14 overs. The momentum MI built at the end of their innings was so irresistible that it carried into a first-ball wicket for Jasprit Bumrah after he had gone six IPL games wicketless, and the Gujarat Titans (GT) wickets just kept tumbling, ending MI's four-match losing streak. It was so dramatic in the end that GT ended one short of Tilak's 101, losing by 99 runs.
The 82 runs that Tilak scored in the last six overs is the most anyone has scored in that period of an IPL innings, resulting in the joint-quickest century for MI, level with Sanath Jayasuriya's effort in 45 balls in the inaugural IPL season. Sensationally, Tilak did so after not having hit a boundary in his first 20 balls, making this the highest IPL score after such a start.
Without taking anything away from Tilak, Naman Dhir arguably scored the tougher runs when the GT bowlers were red-hot: 45 off 32 from No. 3, when MI had slipped to 44 for 3. Tilak was offered some gifts by bowlers failing to stick to their plans, but his response to the errors was intimidating and likely resulted in further errors.
GT quicks on a roll
GT take the fewest risks among IPL teams when they bat. They can afford to do so because their bowlers regularly give them low scores to chase. For the second match in a row, they had their Test bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Kagiso Rabada bowl like they would in a Test match, running through the powerplay with three overs each.
Siraj was excellent with three overs for 15 runs, but the wickets went to Rabada, who was direct with his attack, bowling full, straight and fast. He ripped out Danish Malewar, Quinton de Kock and Suryakumar Yadav in this spell, the latter two with balls timed at 150kph and 152kph.
Dhir keeps MI fighting
Led by Rashid Khan, GT kept the batters honest in the middle overs. Encouraged by the turn on offer for Rashid, Shubman Gill went to Washington Sundar in the 11th over. Tilak, still struggling for fluency, turned the strike over to Dhir, who took down Washington like a medium-pacer. And Washington did bowl like a medium-pacer, firing the ball at upwards of 100kph and getting step-hit for six and four.
However, Prasidh Krishna soon got the wicket of Dhir with yet another short ball, making it 23 IPL wickets for him with short or short-of-a-length balls since the start of the 2025 season. That's nine more than anyone else. He also has the third-best economy rate off those lengths (minimum 30 balls bowled).
Faf du Plessis and Abhinav Mukund on GT's misfiring middler order
Tilak demolishes GT
Which is what makes what followed all the more inexplicable. When he started the 15th over, Prasidh had the field set for the short ball, but proceeded to bowl one full ball after another. One can be a bluff, two could be errors, but four in a row is hard to explain. Tilak was ruthless, taking 16 off these balls.
Rabada came back to bring some order to proceedings, ending with figures of 3 for 33. Rashid, though, didn't enjoy a similar end. He overpitched and underpitched the first two balls of the 17th over, and Tilak was now in irresistible flow, hitting him for four and six.
The biggest over was the 18th, when Tilak outdid Ashok Sharma, who actually followed his plans. The first ball was a wide slower bouncer with the bigger boundary on the off side, but Tilak still upper-cut it for a six. The second ball was on a hard length outside off, but Tilak still managed to ramp it just over short fine. Now the young fast bowler begun to falter, and Tilak demolished the rest of the over for 4, 4 and 6.
Siraj bowled a good 19th, getting the wicket of Hardik Pandya and ending with figures of 4-0-25-1, but Prasidh again started the 20th over with a full ball. When he eventually went short, Tilak pulled him for a six, but only just cleared the sweeper. A high full-toss flew over long leg for a huge six, and the last ball was pulled away for four to bring up the hundred.
Abhinav Mukund, Aaron Finch and Faf du Plessis on whether it was key to Mumbai's win
Bumrah gets first wicket of the season
The last time Bumrah took a wicket in the IPL was in the Eliminator last year, incidentally also against GT. He had gone six IPL matches without a wicket since then without bowling badly at all. He took the brand-new ball for the first time this season, and had a wicket first up with an unremarkable full ball, which B Sai Sudharsan sliced to cover point.
That MI's luck was turning was evident in how Hardik got Jos Buttler lbw on umpire's call with the ball projected to just clip the top of leg stump. Gill then played a nothing pull, neither rolling his wrists over nor trying to hit a six, to make it the first time in 21 matches that GT had lost all their big three in the powerplay.
Ashwani, Santner continue to run through GT
The powerplays cancelled each other out with GT scoring 45 for 3 to MI's 46 for 3. Any hopes of a similar fightback to MI were dashed when Mitchell Santner took out Washington and Glenn Phillips in the same over, Washington to an excellent boundary catch by Dhir.
Ashwani Kumar was then at the receiving end of pressure-induced gifts on three occasions as GT continued to slide. AM Ghazanfar wrapped up the tail with the wickets of Siraj and Rabada in the same over, making it the first time that an MI batter had outscored the entire opposition.
