Delhi: Mumbai Indians (Mi) captain Hardik Pandya returned to the match against Gujarat Titans (GT) in IPL 2025. Earlier, he did not play in the match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) as he was banned a match due to a slow over rate in the last season. However, Hardik’s return became a cause of trouble for Mumbai again. In this match played against Gujarat in Ahmedabad, the over rate of Mumbai Indians was slow again.
The Mumbai team was running nine minutes behind the scheduled time, due to which only four fielders in the last over could stand outside 30 yards. Apart from this, the team will have to face the fine and the match fees of the players will be cut.
In this match against Gujarat, Mumbai Indians took nine minutes more than the scheduled time to throw 19 overs. With this, Mumbai had to keep only four fielders out of 30 yards in the last over. However, during this time Satyanarayana Raju threw the last over and Mumbai did not suffer much loss as the last batsmen of Gujarat were present at the crease.
The slow over rate has been a major problem for Mumbai Indians under Hardik’s captaincy. In the previous season, Mumbai was a victim of slow over rate thrice. Then in their last match against Lucknow Super Giants, the team was six minutes behind the scheduled time. At the same time, before this, the team was two minutes behind in the match against Hyderabad.
Ban rule over slow over rate
It is a matter of relief for Hardik Pandya and Mumbai Indians that the rule of captain’s ban at slow over rate has been removed from this season. Now only match fees will be cut and will get demerit points. If a captain gets a fixed number of demerit points, then he will have to face penalty. However, banning the captain will now be possible only in extreme cases. Apart from Hardik Pandya in IPL 2024, Rishabh Pant also had to face the ban due to slow over rate.
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(Tagstotranslate) Hardik Pandya (T) IPL 2025 (T) Mi (T) Mumbai Indians