AHMEDABAD, APRIL 26

Defending champion Gujarat Titans thumped Mumbai Indians by 55 runs in the Indian Premier League on Tuesday and became the first team to defend the total at the Narendra Modi Stadium this season.

Shubman Gill top-scored with 56 but it was belligerent hitting of David Miller (46) and Abhinav Manohar (42) in the death overs that earned Gujarat its highest-ever IPL total of 207-6.

Afghan spin duo Noor Ahmad (3-37) and Rashid Khan (2-27) dismantled Mumbai's middle-order before Nehal Wadhera's quickfire 40 off 21 balls saw Mumbai finish at 152-9.

'Captaincy is something where I just always bounce my instinct,' Gujarat skipper Hardik Pandya said. 'Today bowling Rashid and Noor we knew we can take off pace against batters like (Cameron) Green and (Tim) David who like pace on the ball.'

Gujarat and Chennai Super Kings share the lead at the halfway stage as both teams have 10 points. Mumbai has six points and is seventh.

Gujarat seamers Mohammed Shami and Pandya stifled Mumbai's run-chase in the powerplay with Pandya dismissing his counterpart Rohit Sharma (2) off a mistimed pull shot in his first over.

Mumbai's middle-order then struggled against the left-arm spin of Ahmad and impeccable leg-spin of Rashid as it slipped to 6-90 in 13 overs.

Rashid accounted for the wickets of the struggling Ishan Kishan, who made 13 off 21 balls, and trapped impact player Tilak Varma (2) leg before wicket through television referral.

However, it was Ahmad who dented Mumbai with the big wickets of Green (33) and David (0) in space of three deliveries before holding onto a brilliant two-handed low return catch of Suryakumar Yadav (23) to end Mumbai hopes.

Earlier, Miller and Manohar provided Gujarat with a perfect finish after Gill hit seven fours and a six but couldn't clear Yadav at long-off and perished in the 12th over.

Miller and Manohar accounted for seven sixes and five boundaries against Mumbai pacers with Green giving away 39 runs off his two overs and Riley Meredith (1-49) also returning expensive figures.

Rahul Tewatia hit three sixes in his rapid knock of 20 off just five balls as Mumbai conceded 70 runs off the last four overs.

'We pretty much had control of the game till the last few overs when we went for too many runs,' Sharma said. 'We have a strong batting lineup to achieve the target. There's a lot of dew as well, so if we had batted well then maybe we would have chased it. But we didn't start well and you don't do that when you are chasing 200-plus.'