Mumbai Indians on Tuesday continued their dominating display with yet another all-round performance as they comprehensively defeated Rajasthan Royals by 57 runs at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah were the main authors who scripted Mumbai Indians’ fourth win in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The four-time champions stand at the top of the points table with eight points from five matches.
After Rohit Sharma opted to bat first, he gave his team a fiery start with a quickfire opening partnership of 49 runs. However, it was Yadav’s 47-ball knock of 79 runs that anchored Mumbai’s innings to the big total of 193/4.
With a pace attack in red-hot form and led by Bunrah, the defending champions bundled Royals for a total of 136.
Bumrah was the champion with his 4/20 which were his best-ever figure in the history of IPL. He got able support from James Pattinson (2/19) and Trent Boult (2/26).
Chasing the target, RR was off to the worst possible start as they lost four of their top-order batsmen — Yashasvi Jaiswal (0), Steven Smith (6), Sanju Samson (0), and Mahipal Lomror (11) — with just 42 runs on board in 8.1 overs.
While Trent Boult dismissed Jaiswal and Samson, Smith and Lomror became victims of Jasprit Bumrah and Rahul Chahar.
Opener Jos Buttler (70) tried his best to keep his side in the hunt with some lusty blows but lacked support from other RR batters.
Along with Tom Curran (15), Buttler tried his best to avoid a batting collapse as they shared a 56-run partnership for the fifth wicket.
However, James Pattinson didn’t let the England stumper succeed as he sent back Buttler in the 14th over with RR still 96 runs away from the target. Buttler’s valiant knock off 44 balls contained four boundaries and five maximums.
Shortly after Buttler, Curran, too, departed off a Keiron Pollard delivery as RR scorecard read 108/6. Bumrah, who looked in a hurry to finish things off as early as possible, packed up Rahul Tewatia (5), Shreyas Gopal (1) and Jofra Archer (24) in quick succession, leaving RR at 136/9 in 18 overs.
Pattinson performed the final rites of RR, dismissing Ankit Rajpoot (2) off the first ball of the penultimate over to set up a comfortable victory for the reigning champions.
MI, opting to bat, was off to a decent start as openers Rohit Sharma (35) and Quinton de Kock (23)added 49 runs for the first wicket before debutant Kartik Tyagi dismissed the latter in the fifth over.
MI lost another two wickets of Rohit and Ishan Kishan, who failed to open his account, within another 39 runs as their scorecard read 88/3 in 9.2 overs.
Yadav, however, kept the scorers busy and tried to repair the damage with Krunal Pandya (12) as the pair was involved in a brief 29-run stand for the fourth wicket. Krunal became a victim of Jofra Archer in the 14th over which saw MI being placed at 117/4.
Hardik Pandya (30 not out) then stabilised the MI innings with Yadav. The duo shared a 76-run partnership off the last 38 balls to propel MI to a respectable total.
Brief scores: Mumbai Indians: 193/4 wkts in 20 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 79 not out, Rohit Sharma 35; Shreyas Gopal 2/28) beat Rajasthan Royals: 136 all out in 18.1 overs (Jos Buttler 70, Jofra Archer 24; Jasprit Bumrah 4/20) by 57 runs
With IANS inputs