New Delhi: After handing Mumbai Indians (MI) their second consecutive thrashing of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, the Gujarat Titans (GT) weren’t shy of admitting the fact that, for the clash, they specifically used a black soil pitch at their home ground, Narendra Modi Stadium. GT skipper Shubman Gill was one happy guy post-match and didn’t hold back from revealing the key reason why MI couldn’t chase 197 and ultimately lost by 36 runs.
Not many would have imagined, but the game was being played on a black soil surface, and the decision to play on it was taken even before the start of the tournament, as per Gill. It was a tactic used to keep the potent MI line-up muffled and the plan indeed worked to perfection. MI came undone as their batters struggled and were halted at 160 by a fantastic bowling attack of GT.
“The decision was taken before the first match that the second match would be played on black soil. Yes, that was a factor as well (MI’s strong batting line-up), but this wicket suited us,” Gill said at the post-match presentation. He further reasoned why the franchise went ahead with the decision of using the black soil pitch, saying such tracks make boundary-hitting tough, as was the result with MI big-hitters like Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, and Tilak Varma.
“Batting on black soil, once the ball gets old, it’s difficult to clear the boundary, so we tried to maximise the power play. We can all talk about plans, but sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t,” he added.
Deliberate effort from us – Parthiv Patel
Parthiv Patel, the assistant coach of Gujarat Titans (GT), said it was indeed the “black soil” (pitch) that threw Mumbai off the rails at the Motera Stadium. The home team was well within their rights to have a pitch of their preference, after all it’s their prerogative.
“(This is) on a slower side, something which we wanted. Mumbai have been preparing themselves by playing on a red surface. It was a deliberate effort from our side. We wanted to play on a black soil. It’s stopping a bit, slightly stickier to start with. From the first impression, there are a lot of cracks on the pitch,” Parthiv said, as quoted by Cricbuzz.
What does a black soil pitch do?
So what does a black soil pitch exactly do? It is understood that Mumbai Indians’ home ground – the Wankhede Stadium boasts red soil pitches which their players are accustomed to and which makes run-fests a normal thing. But the black soil surface is not particularly conducive to stroke play. A red soil pitch in Titans’ IPL 2025 high-scoring opener at the same venue cost them the game by 11 runs, but they were wary of not committing the same mistake again.
On a black soil surface, the ball holds up and comes to the bat a little slower, and these conditions obviously don’t suit the liking of the MI batters, who are used to free-flowing strokeplay. This favoured the GT bowlers as well, who capitalised on the assistance and had the favour of weather gods as well – no serious dew was present to make it tougher for them.
(With PTI inputs)
Gujarat wasn’t shy of admitting that they prepared a black soil pitch for the home game against Mumbai held on Saturday. How did it cost the visitors? GT coach and captain had their says. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
