diff --git a/.github/workflows/pytest-core-mpi.yml b/.github/workflows/pytest-core-mpi.yml
index 01ef13a065..1a0d977bbe 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/pytest-core-mpi.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pytest-core-mpi.yml
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ jobs:
 
     - name: Test with pytest
       run: |
+        python3 scripts/clear_devito_cache.py
         python3 -m pytest --cov --cov-config=.coveragerc --cov-report=xml -m parallel tests/
 
     - name: Upload coverage to Codecov
diff --git a/devito/types/sparse.py b/devito/types/sparse.py
index 7144f74e6a..121678f674 100644
--- a/devito/types/sparse.py
+++ b/devito/types/sparse.py
@@ -169,7 +169,8 @@ def _dist_gather_mask(self, dmap=None):
         ret = list(self._dist_scatter_mask(dmap=dmap))
         mask = ret[self._sparse_position]
         inds = np.unique(mask, return_index=True)[1]
-        ret[self._sparse_position] = inds.tolist()
+        inds.sort()
+        ret[self._sparse_position] = [mask[i] for i in inds]
 
         return tuple(ret)