22 April,2026 10:20 AM IST | Ahmedabad | Sunil K Vaidya
Mumbai Indians’s Tilak Varma celebrates his century against Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad on Monday. Pic/IPL
The hero of Mumbai Indians's 99-run win over Gujarat Titans on Monday, Tilak Varma, who smashed a blistering 45-ball 101 not out, is confident the team can be unstoppable from here on if they execute their plans well.
MI, who had lost four matches in a row before this win, climbed to seventh in the points table.
"I'm grateful that it worked out. But we shouldn't look too far ahead and should take one match at a time. Every game is like a knockout for us now. We know what we are capable of, having several World Cup winners in the side, experienced players, and the skills we possess. If we execute well, we can be unstoppable. It's important to keep our heads down and continue working hard," Varma said after the win.
The opposition's batting coach, Matthew Hayden, could not stop showering hosannas on Varma for his whirlwind century. "Credit has to go to Tilak Varma, who put in a wonderful performance from the position that MI were in," Hayden said during the post-match media interaction at the Narendra Modi Cricket
Stadium on Monday night.
"Huge performance. It wasn't just a one-dimensional performance. It wasn't a cookie cutter-type performance. It was a dominant performance," the former Australia opener said.
Hayden reckoned that Tilak's superior ability to read the conditions swung the match in MI's favour. "He read the play nicely. He was able to pick up and play with power and precision. Mumbai Indians, we all know are a dangerous side. We know they're notorious starters. We know they've got magic within that ocean that surrounds their ground there in Mumbai," The Aussie philosophically said in praise of the MI team.
"As an opposition side, we knew that, and we definitely blinked. And when you blink against a world-class player like Tilak, even on a wicket that's kind of spicy, that is our downfall. We couldn't really retract the negative momentum that was going our way," he said.
45
No. of balls taken by Tilak Varma to reach his century against GT - the joint-fastest for MI with Sanath Jayasuriya
82
No. of runs scored by Tilak Varma in last six overs on Monday - the most by any batter in an IPL match
One
No. of wins for MI against GT at Ahmedabad in five games
251
The difference between Tilak Varma's strike-rate in his first 20 balls and the remainder of his innings - the highest for any batter in an IPL innings
