Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Jonny Bairstow(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Naman Dhir, Raj Bawa, Mitchell Santner, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Richard Gleeson

Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Shubman Gill(c), Sai Sudharsan, Kusal Mendis(w), Shahrukh Khan, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Gerald Coetzee, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna

Gill: We would've chased. If someone would've said at the start of the season that we would've qualified, we would've taken it. Boys are very excited to be able to come back here in Chandigarh, it's my home town. This game is no different for us, no pressure of the knockout game or anything. Two changes - Mendis comes in for Buttler and Washington for Arshad.

Hardik: We're going to bat. Looks like a different track to yesterday. Bit of less grass. Big game, scoring runs and defending would be nice. We all are aware, for the last 9 games we have been playing it like a knockout. Really need to turn up today and focus on the things which we can control. We've got three changes: Jonny comes back, Gleeson makes his debut and Raj Angad Bawa plays.

Mumbai Indians have won the toss and have opted to bat

Two caps handed out in the MI huddle: Rohit gave it to Jonny Bairstow and Bumrah to Richard Gleeson.

"For GT, Anuj Rawat has the gloves on and is keeping to the bowlers. Kumar Kushagra is also in gloves but is keeping at a distance behind Anuj. I haven't spotted Kusal Mendis yet," says Prakash as he keeps an eye on the warmups.

"Jonny Bairstow was taking a few underarm throwdowns a while ago and is now keeping to the bowlers on the practice pitch. He had a hit in the nets on May 28 as well." says our correspondent Prakash Govindasreenivasan from the venue. "Besides the usual suspects - Bumrah, Boult - Ashwani Kumar has also marked his run-up," he adds.

Pitch report | Matthew Hayden and Deep Dasgupta: Square boundaries are 67 and 64 meters. Straight boundary is 73 meters. Weather was very very humid yesterday, tonight it's much drier. This wicket doesn't have the amount of grass cover we saw yesterday. The issues will be similar in terms of elevated bounce and it will get a little slower because it's a little drier with less grass. Dew factor might be negligible.

Coming into the playoffs, Mumbai Indians will be affected by the departure of their overseas players like Ryan Rickelton and Will Jacks, while Gujarat Titans will be without the services of their star batsman - Jos Buttler, who scored more than 500 runs for the Titans in the league stage. Jonny Bairstow will be Rickelton's replacement at the top for MI, while Kusal Mendis has been roped in for Buttler by the Titans. Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan have shone at the top as both the GT openers have scored more than 600 runs and if the Titans are to advance further in the tournament, both will have to play a key role in today's knockout fixture. Both these teams have some solid bowlers in their respective teams, so let's hope we have a cracking contest tonight. Stay around for the toss and teams..

18:15 Local Time, 12:45 GMT, 18:15 IST: The Royal Challengers Bangalore became the first team to qualify for the final of IPL 2025 as they thumped Punjab Kings in their backyard by 8 wickets last night. It was a clinical bowling performance by RCB as Hazlewood, Dayal and Suyash choked the opposition to rattle them out for a paltry total of 101. In reply, the Challengers lost an early wicket of Kohli, however, Salt and co. finished off the chase without breaking a sweat. Last night's match was pretty one-sided, but we've got two top-notch teams in action tonight. It's time for the Eliminator as Gujarat Titans lock horns with five-time IPL champions - Mumbai Indians.

Preview by Prakash Govindasreenivasan:

Washington Sundar turned around after a perfect delivery and made his way towards assistant coach Aashish Kapoor for a high-five. He'd earned it. Sai Sudharsan, who just can't stop batting, or tonking his own bowlers around an empty stadium, had just been cleaned up by the spinner in the nets. The session on Tuesday evening carried a cloud of uncertainty - at that point, the Gujarat Titans still didn't know which of the two playoff games in Chandigarh they would be featured in. Yet, it was business as usual as Sudharsan carried on batting. When he was done, around 45 minutes in, he was replaced by the other batting glutton, Shubman Gill. With Jos Buttler not around for the playoffs, the two need all the batting they can get heading into a knockout fixture against a title-obsessed Mumbai Indians.

The tournament royalty, however, have two opponents on Friday - a resolute Gujarat Titans and history. Never since the introduction of the playoffs system has a team finished fourth and gone on to win the title. 13 of those 14 trophies have been won by the top two sides, and only once has a team taken the longer Eliminator-Qualifier 2 route to glory (SRH from 3rd spot in 2016). But when you win as often and as much as MI do, there's always room for the unthinkable and the unprecedented to happen. Even from fourth, MI will have a champion's strut about themselves after getting there through six successive victories.

That said, Titans have no reason to believe they've got themselves into the worst possible tangle after missing out on a top-two finish. Just two seasons ago, they clinically ousted a similarly fourth-placed MI from the second qualifier en route to the final. Titans might not be an IPL behemoth yet but they've been the best team (37 wins in 59 games) since their inception in 2022, making two finals and winning one. More crucially, they were quick to recover from the stumble caused by an upheaval that saw their title-winning captain Hardik Pandya make a homeward gallop to Mumbai. This season, GT have already pricked MI's mid-season invincibility by ending that six-game winning run.

The absence of an influential batter like Buttler was primed to skew the contest but MI's top-order has also been hit by national-duty bound players. They'll have to replace Ryan Rickelton and Will Jacks, and hope their new recruits, with an asterisk, will hit the ground running immediately. Not that a knockout fixture of this magnitude needed an extra edge, but both teams missing trusted top-order pieces chucks in a generous dose of unpredictability to Friday.

When: Gujarat Titans vs Mumbai Indians, May 30, 2025, 07:30 PM IST

Where: Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur, Chandigarh

What to expect: Yet another hot evening and uneven square boundary dimensions. Both the teams will have to learn and adapt on the go on Friday, having not played a game at this venue this season. Last year, they each beat PBKS here.

Head to head: GT 5 - 2 MI. The Titans have done the double over MI this season, and have won each of their last four encounters, including the second qualifier of 2023.

Team Watch:

Mumbai Indians

Injury/Unavailability: Ryan Rickelton, Will Jacks and Corbin Bosch have left the building for the WTC final. Jonny Bairstow, Charith Asalanka and Richard Gleeson have taken their place temporarily, and were in training on Wednesday.

Tactics & Match-ups: The earliest sub-plot of this fixture is going to be between Trent Boult and the GT openers. The left-armer has dismissed Sai Sudharsan twice - both in this season, conceding only 31 off 30 balls to him. He has tamed the GT skipper too, dismissing him once and giving away only 74 off 69 deliveries in IPL. Boult has also dismissed Sherfane Rutherford twice in seven balls.

Probable XII: Rohit Sharma, Jonny Bairstow, Suryakumar Yadav, Charith Asalanka, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Ashwani Kumar/Karn Sharma

Gujarat Titans


Injury/Unavailability: Kusal Mendis is filling in a temporary replacement. He could go straight into that XI at No.3.

Tactics & Match-ups: Rohit Sharma has done well against the two GT pacers - Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj - but has been troubled by Rashid Khan in this tournament. The leggie hasn't had the most potent season by his standards, but has repeatedly flummoxed Rohit in the past - conceded just 35 off 32 deliveries for two dismissals. Rashid has also done well against Tilak Varma (24/2 in 23) and Hardik Pandya (28/2 in 38).

Probable XII: Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill, Kusal Mendis, Sherfane Rutherford, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Gerald Coetzee, Arshad Khan, R Sai Kishore, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna

Did you know:

- With a tally of 640 (and counting), Suryakumar Yadav has the most runs for an MI batter in a single IPL season.

- GT's consistency at the top has been unparalleled. For the first time in the history of the tournament, a team has used the same three players at the top of the order throughout the league phase. That run, however, will not extend to the playoffs in Buttler's absence.

- GT have been the best batting side in the competition, averaging 35.61 per wicket at a strike-rate of 157.59 (second only to PBKS' 160.58). MI have been the best bowling side on all three parameters: average (22.98), SR (16.1) and ER (8.54).

What they said:

"Overall, play good cricket, bat well, bowl well, work on the plans, see what is the template which will work as a batting group. Bowlers have been doing really well throughout the season. Batting, we'll figure out what is the right template on right tracks and if we bat first, what is the pace we want to bat. Couple of things which we need to identify, but I don't think [there's] much panic. We knew what's at stake." - Hardik Pandya on his grand plans for the Eliminator.

"This [loss to CSK] one would be a hard pill to swallow for us. The bright side is that we have two or three games left so boys will be motivated to play in Mohali. Fortunately for me, going back to my hometown... [I've] played a lot of cricket there and it's going to be really exciting." - Shubman Gill

Squads:

Gujarat Titans Squad: Shubman Gill(c), Sai Sudharsan, Kusal Mendis(w), Sherfane Rutherford, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Arshad Khan, Gerald Coetzee, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Anuj Rawat, Mahipal Lomror, Ishant Sharma, Washington Sundar, Jayant Yadav, Dasun Shanaka, Karim Janat, Kulwant Khejroliya, Manav Suthar, Kumar Kushagra, Gurnoor Brar, Nishant Sindhu

Mumbai Indians Squad: Rohit Sharma, Jonny Bairstow(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Charith Asalanka, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Ashwani Kumar, Karn Sharma, Raj Bawa, Satyanarayana Raju, Bevon Jacobs, Robin Minz, Arjun Tendulkar, Raghu Sharma, Krishnan Shrijith, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Richard Gleeson, Reece Topley