"Worst team ever purchased in auction" - Twitter erupts as MI lose to GT by 55 runs in IPL 2023

The Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians (MI) lost to Hardik Pandya's Gujarat Titans (GT) by 55 runs in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, April 25. Mumbai, the five-time champions, were restricted to 152/9 in response to GT's 207/6.

The visitors had the worst possible start, with both openers Rohit Sharma 2(8) and Ishan Kishan 13(21) failing to deliver. Tilak Verma 2(3) also came up short, leaving MI reeling at 45/3.

Cameron Green (33 off 26) and Suryakumar Yadav (23 off 12) looked good during their short stints at the crease but failed to build a solid partnership. Tim David's silver duck further added salt to the wounds.

Nehal Wadhera top-scored for Mumbai with 40 off just 21 balls, which included three sixes and as many boundaries. Piyush Chawla and Arjun Tendulkar added 18(12) and 13(9) respectively, to improve their net run rate (NRR) at the back end and prevent a total collapse.

Noor Ahmed emerged as the pick of the bowlers for GT, returning with figures of 3/37. Rashid Khan and Mohit Sharma took two wickets apiece, while captain Hardik Pandya settled for a solitary wicket.

Fans on Twitter expressed their disappointment with Mumbai Indians’ performance against GT. One user tweeted:

"This is the worst team ever purchased in auction."

Here are some of the other entertaining Twitter reactions:

Earlier in the day, GT posted 207/6 in their allotted 20 overs, courtesy the efforts of Shubman Gill (56 off 34), David Miller (46 off 22) and Abhinav Manohar (42 off 21). Rahul Tewatia also provided a late flourish, scoring an unbeaten 20 off just five balls.

For MI, Piyush Chawla was the pick of the bowlers, returning with figures of 2/34.

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“The last few overs went for a few too many runs” – Rohit Sharma disappointed with MI’s bowling unit

After the match Rohit Sharma expressed disappointment at MI’s bowling unit, which gave away 77 runs in the last five overs against GT. They had also leaked 96 runs in the last five overs against Punjab Kings, in another losing cause.

Speaking at the post-match show, Rohit Sharma said:

“That's a little disappointing, we had control of the game, and the last few overs went for a few too many runs. Every team has different strengths, we have a good batting line up and we back ourselves to go out and get that target. Today wasn't our today.”

Rohit went on to add that batters need to take on more responsibility and that one of the batters needs to play till the end:

“There was some dew, and we needed someone to bat a little deeper. We came pretty close in the last game while chasing 215, but we didn't start well with the bat today, and that is not the right thing when chasing 200+. Even in the last seven overs, we didn't have many batters batting in the middle.”

Mumbai Indians are currently placed seventh in the points table, with three wins in seven games. They will next play Sanju Samson's Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday, April 30.