Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], March 30 (ANI): Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya has been fined INR 12 lakh for maintaining a slow over-rate during their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 match against Gujarat Titans (GT) on Saturday night in Ahmedabad, as per ESPNcricinfo.

This was MI's second match--and second defeat--of the season, but Hardik's first appearance, as he had to serve a suspension for the team's opening fixture. The suspension stemmed from MI's slow over-rate in their final game of IPL 2024 against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). However, MI and Hardik avoided a harsher penalty this time, as the IPL has removed the rule enforcing bans for repeated over-rate violations. Instead, teams now face monetary fines and in-game field restrictions.

This was the first slow over-rate penalty of IPL 2025 and was issued after the ninth game of the season.

MI, fielding a pace-heavy attack with Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar, Satyanarayana Raju, and Hardik himself, exceeded the allotted time to complete their overs.

Coming to the match, MI won the toss and opted to bowl first.

GT openers Shubman Gill (38 in 27 balls, with four boundaries and a six) and Sai Sudarshan put the team to a fine start with a 78-run stand. Another half-century stand came between Sudarshan and Jos Buttler (39 in 24 balls, with five fours and a six). Sudarshan played a solid knock of 63 in 41 balls, with four boundaries and two sixes. From 179/4, GT suffered a mini-collapse towards the end as they were restricted to 196/8 in 20 overs.

Skipper Hardik Pandya (2/29) was the pick of the bowlers for MI, while Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar, Mujeeb ur Rahman and Satyanarayana Raju each took a wicket.

In the run chase of 197 runs, MI lost Rohit Sharma (8) and Ryan Rickelton early. However, Tilak Varma (39 in 36 balls, with three fours and a six) and Suryakumar Yadav (48 in 28 balls, with a four and four sixes) tried fighting it out for MI with a 62-run stand. Following their dismissal, MI lost their way and were restricted to 160/6 in 20 overs.

Prasidh Krishna (2/18) and Mohammed Siraj (2/34) were the top bowlers for GT. Kagiso Rabada and Sai Kishore also got a wicket each. (ANI)