IPL 2025: Gujarat Titans’ left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore has opened up on his on-field confrontation with Hardik Pandya on Saturday, March 29. It happened during the IPL 2025 game on Saturday against the Mumbai Indians at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The 28-year-old said he wouldn’t read too much into it, claiming it was a harmless exchange.
IPL 2025: The incident occurred in the 15th over of the innings and Sai Kishore’s fourth as Pandya came down the track to defend a length delivery from the bowler. The spinner picked up the ball immediately and stared at the Mumbai Indians skipper as they exchanged some words.
— Follow @itshitmanera (@Itshitmanera45) March 29, 2025
IPL 2025: Speaking to the host broadcaster after the game, the Tamil Nadu-born cricketer stated:
“He is a very good friend of mine, inside the field, it should be like that. Anyone is an opponent but we do not take anything personally.”
The southpaw opened up on his duel with Suryakumar Yadav, revealing that the right-handed batter played quite well in tricky conditions.
“I felt I was not getting as much purchase. Had to play for the team, had to bowl defensively, mixed it up a little bit. Felt it played better than what it looked. He (Suryakumar) played really well, he swept all my good length balls. When someone plays a good shot, you have to give credit to him. I did some things instinctively, Gill also told me, having played with him.”
Sai Kishore, who picked up three wickets against the Punjab Kings, dismissed Robin Minz on Saturday to finish with a decent haul of 4-0-37-1.
Hardik Pandya struggles with the bat as Mumbai Indians sink to their second defeat of IPL 2025
Pandya was the pick of the bowlers for the Mumbai Indians with figures of 4-0-29-2. However, all he managed with the bat was 11 off 17 deliveries with a boundary. The 31-year-old walked in at 108/4, with the five-time champions needing 89 off their last seven overs.
Although Suryakumar Yadav was settled at the other end, some good bowling by the Titans stifled him and he eventually fell for 48. After amassing 196/8, the hosts won by 36 runs to get on board, and Mumbai slumped to their second defeat. Prasidh Krishna earned the Player of the Match award with figures of 4-0-18-2.
The dismissal came in the fifth over of MI’s chase of 197. Siraj bowled a back-of-a-length ball pitching on the leg stump. Rickelton swung across the line and got an inside edge that crashed onto the stumps with the off-stump flying out of the ground. Siraj burst into Cristiano Ronaldo’s trademark SIUUU celebrations. The speedster struck twice during his three-over spell in the powerplay to reduce MI to 35/3 after 4.3 overs.