A controversial staredown between Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya and Gujarat Titans star bowler R Sai Kishore hogged limelight during the 9th match of Indian Premier League 2025 in Ahmedabad on Saturday. The furious clash even saw Hardik yelling “F*** off” to the spinner. While the words of Hardik were not caught on the stump mic, the movement of his lips made is clear what was said. It happened during the 15th over of Mumbai Indians’ chase when Sai Kishore bowled three dot balls to Hardik of the four balls bowled by then.

While the controversial moment between the duo went viral on internet, both Hardik and Kishore were seen hugging each other after the match. The heartwarming moment too dragged the attention of the netizens on X (formerly Twitter).

Watch it here:

Thrilling the home crowd with a performance to cherish

Gujarat Titans get their #TATAIPL 2025 campaign off the mark

Scorecard #GTvMI | @gujarat_titans pic.twitter.com/iy60R0cOwZ

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 29, 2025

While reacting to the incident after the game, Kishore said, “He (Hardik) is a good friend of mine, inside the field it should be like that, but we don’t take things personally.”

Kishore returned figures of 1 for 37 in his quota of four overs. Talking about his bowling, he said, “I wasn’t getting as much purchase today, so had to bowl defensively and had to do a job for the team. The pitch played better than it looked.

MI lost the game by 36 runs to GT. Suryakumar Yadav was their top-scorer with a 48-run knock off 28.

“He (Suryakumar Yadav) played well, he swept all my good length balls. If someone plays a good shot, you have to credit the batter. I have to credit Shubman (Gill), he kept advising me on what to bowl to Surya since he’s seen him in the Indian nets. Looking forward to this season, I’ve been very honest with myself and worked very hard. Have watched a lot of games and worked on a lot of things for this season, so looking forward to this season,” said Kishore.