IPL 2025: Hardik Pandya's Costly Mistake, Fined Heavily for Slow Over Rate

Ahmedabad (The Uttam Hindu): Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya has been fined for slow over rate during the IPL match against Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Hardik Pandya has been fined Rs 12 lakh. The Mumbai bowler failed to bowl 20 overs against Gujarat Titans in the stipulated time. Earlier, Hardik Pandya had to face a one-match suspension this season due to over-rate against Lucknow Super Giants in IPL 2024. He could not play the first match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK). The five-time champion team struggled in his absence, failed to score well against CSK and lost the match by four wickets.

This is the first time in IPL 2025 that a captain has been fined for slow over rate. At the same time, Mumbai Indians suffered their second defeat of the season on Saturday in the match. Gujarat Titans won a stunning 36-run victory over five-time champions Mumbai Indians at the Narendra Modi Stadium on the back of brilliant bowling by Prasidh Krishna and Mohammad Siraj. The Titans performed well with the whole team to beat Mumbai Indians by 36 runs and register their first win in IPL 2025. Batting first, GT scored 196/8 thanks to Sai Sudarshan's 63 runs off 41 balls. Later, fast bowlers Prasidh Krishna and Siraj bowled brilliantly and GT opened their account in IPL 2025 by restricting MI to 160/6 in 20 overs.

Mumbai Indians have not been able to register any win so far. The team will play its next match against defending champion Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday. After the defeat, Hardik said, "I think we fell short by 15-20 runs in both batting and bowling. We were not good in fielding, we made basic mistakes and due to this we lost 20-25 runs.