Mumbai Indians (MI) completed a hat-trick of wins after they beat Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 57 runs at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi yesterday.
Electing to bat, MI made their intentions clear straight away as Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock hit a four each in the first over bowled by Ankit Rajpoot.
While Shreyas Gopal bowled a tight second over, Rohit targeted Rajpoot in the third over, hitting a six and a four before de Kock scooped one for four.
In the next over, de Kock took on Jofra Archer to hit a four and a six, but the left-hander got out in the fifth over as debutant Kartik Tyagi picked up his maiden IPL wicket.
MI ended the powerplay with 57 runs on the board, losing a wicket.
Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav hit a six and a four respectively in the eighth over before the latter, in the ninth, added three more fours to his account as MI moved closer to 90.
RR, though fought back in the 10th over as Shreyas Gopal scalped two wickets off successive deliveries. First, he had MI skipper Sharma caught in the deep, and then had Ishan Kishan out first ball, miscuing a slog.
MI moved past 100 in the 12th over as Suryakumar Yadav hit a couple of crisp fours. However, they lost their fourth wicket a couple of overs later as Jofra Archer, who was brought back into the attack, dismissed Krunal Pandya.
Suryakumar Yadav, meanwhile, brought up his first 50 of the IPL 2020 in the 16th over as MI surpassed 130-run mark.
MI needed some quick runs to put up a big total on the board and Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik made sure their team got what it was looking for as MI scored 60 off the last four overs.
The 17th over, bowled by Archer, went for nine runs as Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik hit a four each. RR then had a chance to get Hardik out in the 18th over, but Tom Curran dropped a catch off of his own bowling as MI scored 19 in the same over, with Surya hitting a four and a six and Hardik hit a four.
In the dramatic 19th over, Hardik managed to duck under Archer’s beamer and save getting hit on the head, Surya was pinged on the head with Archer’s bouncer. While he was checked for concussion, Surya played an audacious scoop off the next ball to hit a six as MI moved closer to 180 at the close of the penultimate over.
Rajpoot conceded a six and a four in the last over as MI scored 17 in the over to post 193/4 on the board, with Surya remaining unbeaten on his best-ever IPL score of 79.
MI had 193 runs to defend and their pacers hit the ground running. Trent Boult struck in the first over as Jaiswal got out for zero.
Jasprit Bumrah then scalped the big wicket of Steve Smith as de Kock held on to an excellent catch behind the wicket.
Boult, then had Sanju Samson’s wicket in the third over after the RR batsman mistimed his pull and Sharma held on to an easy catch mid-on.
RR lost their fourth wicket soon after the strategic time out as Anukul Roy took an outstanding catch to get Mahipal Lomror out. The substitute fielder ran backwards from the extra cover position and leapt forward to complete the catch.
While the wickets fell at the end other end, Jos Buttler kept the RR hopes alive. The wicketkeeper-batsman, who brought up his 10th IPL 50 and 1500 IPL runs, changed gear dramatically.
He was batting on 24 off 24 deliveries, but Buttler added 26 from the next 10 balls he faced to move past 50 in the 11th over. The next two overs saw Buttler hit two sixes and a four as RR moved closer to 100 by the end of 13 overs.
Buttler had moved to 70 off 43 balls and taking the attack to MI. But a Kieron Pollard special near the boundary rope ended the Buttler show. Pollard, manning the long-on area, leapt up, stuck out his right hand to catch the ball. While the ball bounced out of his hand, Pollard kept his nerve and balance to complete the catch.
The West Indian, then picked up a wicket as RR lost Curran in the 15th over before Bumrah scalped two wickets in the 16th over, dismissing Rahul Tewatia and Shreyas Gopal.
Bumrah picked his fourth wicket of the match to end Archer’s 11-ball 24-run cameo. James Pattinson, then ended the RR innings, dismissing Rajpoot, as MI registered their fourth win of the season and moved to the top of the points table.
Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians 193/4 (Suryakumar Yadav 79*, Rohit Sharma 35; Shreyas Gopal 2/28) beat Rajasthan Royals 136 all out (Jos Buttler 70, Jofra Archer 24; Jasprit Bumrah 4/20) by 57 runs
