Sixty balls. One hundred and twenty-nine runs. Ten sixes. On the night of 26 May 2023, at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Shubman Gill played the highest individual innings in the history of the IPL playoffs. He passed Virender Sehwag's 122 for Kings XI Punjab in the 2014 Qualifier 2, a record that had stood for nine years. Gujarat Titans made 233/3, then the biggest total any side had posted in a knockout game, and won Qualifier 2 against Mumbai Indians by 62 runs.
The score was only part of it. Mumbai arrived in Ahmedabad as the form team of the 2023 playoffs. Two nights earlier at Chepauk they had beaten Lucknow Super Giants by 81 runs, with Akash Madhwal taking 5/5. Five-time champions, a settled batting order, momentum. Gill took that apart in about two hours, and then Mohit Sharma bowled 14 deliveries that finished the job: 5 wickets for 10 runs. This is the reconstruction of that night, over by over, using the ball-by-ball record.
The Night Gill Broke the Playoff Ceiling
The setting: a second chance for the champions
Gujarat came into the 2023 playoffs as defending champions, having won the title in their debut season in 2022. They topped the 2023 league table but lost Qualifier 1 to Chennai Super Kings by 15 runs at Chepauk on 23 May. That defeat sent them home to Ahmedabad for Qualifier 2 on 26 May, where they had to win to reach the final.
Mumbai had come the long way. They finished fourth, beat Lucknow in the 24 May Eliminator, and had won five titles between 2013 and 2020. Rohit Sharma won the toss on 26 May and chose to field. On a true Ahmedabad surface, chasing looked like the percentage call.
The powerplay: patience before the storm
Gujarat's first six overs gave little away. Wriddhiman Saha and Gill reached 50/0, with no over costing more than 12 runs. Jason Behrendorff opened with a 3-run over and finished 4-0-28-0, the most economical full spell of the night. At that point Mumbai's decision looked fine.
The first wicket came in the seventh over. Saha (18 off 16) danced at Piyush Chawla and was stumped by Ishan Kishan. That turned out to be Mumbai's last good moment for a while. At the halfway mark Gujarat were 91/1, a par score on a ground where 180 was the usual first-innings total. Gill reached his fifty from his 32nd ball in the tenth over, and from there the innings changed.
Overs 11 to 15: the acceleration
From the 11th over Gill stopped accumulating and started attacking. Akash Madhwal's 12th over went for 21 and Piyush Chawla's 13th for 20. Gill hit full balls back over the bowler's head, and when Mumbai shortened their length he pulled them into the stands at midwicket. Gujarat scored 75 runs in overs 11 to 15 and reached 166/1.
Gill brought up his century from his 49th ball, in the 15th over. It was his third hundred in four innings: 101 against Sunrisers Hyderabad at this ground on 15 May, 104* against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy on 21 May, and now 100-plus with the season at stake. Second-wicket partner B Sai Sudharsan played the supporting role well, rotating the strike and hitting only when the ball was there.
The finish: 129 and a tactical retirement
Gill was finally caught by Tim David off Madhwal on the last ball of the 17th over, for 129 off 60 balls with 7 fours and 10 sixes. Gujarat were 198/2. Then came a moment of 2023 strategy: in the 19th over Gujarat retired Sai Sudharsan out on 43 off 31 balls so that Rashid Khan could come in for the last few deliveries. Hardik Pandya, Gujarat's captain in 2023, finished on 28* off 13, and 19 came off the final over. Gujarat ended on 233/3.
Every Mumbai bowler bar Behrendorff went at more than 7.5 an over. Jordan's four overs cost 56 and Madhwal, the hero of the Eliminator, conceded 52.
Mumbai's Reply and the Mohit Sharma Collapse
Tilak Varma's 14-ball assault
A target of 234 needs everything to go right, and Mumbai's chase started badly. Nehal Wadhera fell in the first over and Rohit Sharma for 8 in the third, both to Mohammed Shami. Kishan didn't bat: he had been hit near the eye by Jordan's elbow while keeping, and Vishnu Vinod came in as a concussion substitute.
Then Tilak Varma took the game on. He made 43 off 14 balls with 5 fours and 3 sixes, and he took Shami for 24 in the fifth over. Mumbai finished the powerplay on 72/3, ahead of Gujarat's 50/0 at the same stage, but they had lost Tilak to Rashid Khan, bowled on the last ball of the sixth over. In a chase this big, a fast start bought with wickets was always going to be risky.
Suryakumar Yadav keeps the door open
Suryakumar Yadav and Green rebuilt. Green made 30 off 20 before Josh Little bowled him in the 12th over. Suryakumar went on to 61 off 38 with 7 fours and 2 sixes, scoring all round the wicket as he does. At the end of the 14th over Mumbai were 149/4, needing 85 from 36 balls. That was hard but not impossible against Gujarat's death bowling.
Five for ten
Hardik turned to Mohit Sharma, a 34-year-old who had been out of the IPL entirely in 2022 and joined Gujarat as a net bowler before getting a contract. Mohit's slower balls and wide yorkers broke the chase. With the third ball of the 15th over he bowled Suryakumar as he tried to scoop. Two balls later Vinod was caught by Hardik. Rashid had Tim David lbw in the 16th. Mohit came back for the 17th and had Jordan caught with its first ball and Piyush Chawla with its third. Kumar Kartikeya was the last to go, caught by David Miller in the 19th over.
Mumbai lost their last six wickets for fewer than 20 runs and were all out for 171 in 18.2 overs. Mohit finished with 2.2-0-10-5, the second-best figures in IPL playoff history. The best had come only two nights earlier: Madhwal's 5/5 for the side Mohit had just bowled out.
The Data Deep-Dive
Scorecard essentials — Qualifier 2, 26 May 2023
| Gujarat Titans 233/3 (20 ov) | R | B | 4s | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shubman Gill c David b Madhwal | 129 | 60 | 7 | 10 |
| B Sai Sudharsan retired out | 43 | 31 | 5 | 1 |
| Hardik Pandya not out | 28 | 13 | 2 | 2 |
| Wriddhiman Saha st Kishan b Chawla | 18 | 16 | 3 | 0 |
| Rashid Khan not out | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Mumbai Indians 171 (18.2 ov) | R | B | 4s | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suryakumar Yadav b Mohit Sharma | 61 | 38 | 7 | 2 |
| Tilak Varma b Rashid | 43 | 14 | 5 | 3 |
| Cameron Green b Little | 30 | 20 | 2 | 2 |
| Rohit Sharma c Little b Shami | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 |
| Gujarat bowling | O | R | W | Econ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mohit Sharma | 2.2 | 10 | 5 | 4.29 |
| Rashid Khan | 4 | 33 | 2 | 8.25 |
| Mohammed Shami | 3 | 41 | 2 | 13.67 |
| Josh Little | 3 | 26 | 1 | 8.67 |
How the innings compared, phase by phase
| Phase | GT runs | GT wickets | MI runs | MI wickets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overs 1–6 | 50 | 0 | 72 | 3 |
| Overs 7–10 | 41 | 1 | 38 | 0 |
| Overs 11–15 | 75 | 0 | 46 | 3 |
| Overs 16–20 | 67 | 2* | 15 | 4 |
| Total | 233 | 3 | 171 | 10 |
Includes Sai Sudharsan's tactical retirement. Mumbai's last phase covers 2.2 overs.
Mumbai actually won the powerplay by 22 runs. They lost the match between overs 11 and 15, when Gill's acceleration and Mohit's first strikes created a 29-run swing, and they lost it completely after that.
Where 129 sits in playoff history (2008–2025)
| Rank | Batter | Score | Balls | Match |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shubman Gill | 129 | 60 | 2023 Qualifier 2 vs MI |
| 2 | Virender Sehwag | 122 | 58 | 2014 Qualifier 2 vs CSK |
| 3 | Shane Watson | 117* | 57 | 2018 Final vs SRH |
| 4 | Wriddhiman Saha | 115* | 55 | 2014 Final vs KKR |
| 5 | Murali Vijay | 113 | 58 | 2012 Qualifier 2 vs DC |
| 6 | Rajat Patidar | 112* | 54 | 2022 Eliminator vs LSG |
Gujarat's 233/3 led the list of playoff totals through the 2025 season, ahead of Mumbai's 228/5 in the 2025 Eliminator and Kings XI Punjab's 226/6 in 2014. It was finally beaten in the IPL 2026 Qualifier 1, when RCB made 254/5 against Gujarat Titans themselves.
The 2023 season that built it
| Date | Opponent | Score | Balls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Mar 2023 | Chennai Super Kings | 63 | 36 |
| 13 Apr 2023 | Punjab Kings | 67 | 49 |
| 25 Apr 2023 | Mumbai Indians | 56 | 34 |
| 7 May 2023 | Lucknow Super Giants | 94 | 51 |
| 15 May 2023 | Sunrisers Hyderabad | 101 | 58 |
| 21 May 2023 | Royal Challengers Bangalore | 104* | 52 |
| 26 May 2023 | Mumbai Indians (Q2) | 129 | 60 |
Gill finished IPL 2023 with 890 runs in 17 innings and won the Orange Cap. Only Virat Kohli's 973 in 2016 is a bigger single-season total in IPL history.
Legacy Impact — What This Means Today
Gujarat didn't win the 2023 title. Three nights later, in the rain-delayed final on 29 May, they made 214/4 with Sai Sudharsan scoring 96 off 47, and lost on DLS to Chennai off the last ball. That story is told in our reconstruction of the 2023 final. But the Qualifier 2 performance set the pattern for the franchise: a top order built around Gill's control, with a captain willing to make cold tactical calls like retiring a set batter on 43.
That pattern carries into the present. Gill now captains Gujarat, and Sai Sudharsan and Rashid Khan are still core members of the Gujarat Titans squad. Gujarat returned to Qualifier 2 in IPL 2026 and won it against Rajasthan Royals before losing the final to RCB. Hardik Pandya has gone back to Mumbai and captains them, alongside Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma and Rohit Sharma, four of the men who were in Ahmedabad that night. Mohammed Shami now bowls for Lucknow and Noor Ahmad for Chennai. A 2023 knockout spread its cast across half the league.
The match also explains how CricMind's Oracle approaches playoff games. In Qualifier 2 the toss went to Mumbai, the momentum went to Mumbai, and the Eliminator hero bowled for Mumbai, and Gujarat still won by 62 runs. Home venue, top-order form across the whole season and a death bowler in rhythm counted for more than recent momentum. That is why the model's pre-match calls weight those long-run signals more heavily than a single hot result. In 2026 it picked Gujarat at 58% for their Qualifier 2 and got it right.
For the wider playoff record book, including every Qualifier 2 since the format began in 2011, see our complete IPL playoff history and the 2023 season page.
Three Takeaways
- The 2023 Qualifier 2 was won in overs 11 to 15, not in the powerplay. Mumbai led by 22 runs after six overs. The 41 runs Gujarat took from the 12th and 13th overs and Mohit's double strike in the 15th were the real swing.
- Gill's 129 was the peak of the best run of form a young Indian batter has had in the IPL. Three hundreds in four innings and 890 runs, second only to Kohli's 2016, made him Gujarat's obvious future captain.
- Mohit Sharma's 5/10 is the best second-chance story in modern IPL. Out of the league in 2022 and a net bowler before his contract, he produced the second-best figures in playoff history, two nights after Madhwal set the record.
FAQ
What was the highest individual score in IPL playoff history before 2023?
Virender Sehwag's 122 off 58 balls for Kings XI Punjab against Chennai Super Kings in the 2014 Qualifier 2 at Wankhede. Shubman Gill's 129 off 60 against Mumbai Indians on 26 May 2023 passed it.
How many sixes did Shubman Gill hit in his 129 in Qualifier 2?
Ten sixes and seven fours. He reached 50 from 32 balls and 100 from 49 balls before he was caught by Tim David off Akash Madhwal in the 17th over.
What were Mohit Sharma's figures in the 2023 Qualifier 2?
2.2 overs, 0 maidens, 10 runs, 5 wickets. He dismissed Suryakumar Yadav, Vishnu Vinod, Chris Jordan, Piyush Chawla and Kumar Kartikeya, as Mumbai Indians were bowled out for 171 in 18.2 overs.
Did Gujarat Titans win IPL 2023 after beating Mumbai in Qualifier 2?
No. Gujarat lost the final to Chennai Super Kings on DLS on 29 May 2023 at the same Ahmedabad ground, despite making 214/4. Ravindra Jadeja hit the winning boundary off the last ball.
Why was Sai Sudharsan retired out in Qualifier 2?
It was a tactical retirement. In the 19th over, with Sai Sudharsan on 43 off 31, Gujarat replaced him with Rashid Khan, a bigger hitter, for the last few balls. Gujarat added 19 runs in the 20th over.
How many runs did Shubman Gill score in IPL 2023?
890 runs in 17 innings, with three centuries (101, 104* and 129) and four fifties. He won the Orange Cap. It is the second-highest single-season aggregate in IPL history, behind Virat Kohli's 973 in 2016.
Is Gujarat Titans' 233/3 still the highest total in IPL playoff history?
It held the record through the 2025 season. In the IPL 2026 Qualifier 1, Royal Challengers Bengaluru made 254/5 against Gujarat Titans, the new highest playoff total.
Statistics from the Cricsheet ball-by-ball record of IPL 2008–2025. Analysis by CricMind.