Rajasthan Royals won by 23 runs against the Mumbai Indians.
Jos Buttler scored a century as Rajasthan Royals scored 193/8 against Mumbai Indians.
Jasprit Bumrah and Tymal Mills picked 3 wickets each for MI.
Tilak Verma (61) and Ishan Kishan (54) scored half-centuries for MI.
After Jos Buttler's blistering century, the Rajasthan Royals' bowling, worked well in tandem as they handed the Mumbai Indians a second consecutive defeat. The Royals won the contest by 23 runs.
While Buttler scored 100, the experienced spinners R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal bowled 8 overs for 3 wickets and 56 runs, to tie down the opposition batters.
Mumbai had some hopes of making the chase work out with Ishan Kishan and Tilak Varma were going great guns, but once they were dismissed, the Royals made sure that the lower middle-order, including Kieron Pollard wouldn't be able to take the game away.
Batting first, Rajasthan needed a solid start with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler at the top of the order. But 13 runs into the game, Jaiswal departed as Jasprit Bumrah had his number, and just at the end of the powerplay, Devdutt Padikkal was packed off for 7 by Tymal Mills, caught by Rohit Sharma at cover while looking for the big shot.
Buttler at the other end though was playing his shots quite freely and was joined by Sanju Samson, with the duo looking to add momentum and keep it steady as well in the middle overs. Buttler was particularly severe on Basil Thampi, smashing him for 26 runs in one over in the powerplay.
Samson and Buttler dug in, scoring with quite a bit of ease as Mumbai’s bowlers failed to apply the brakes on them. Neither were shy of stepping down the track to the bowlers, nor were they about to hold back if it was pitched a little short as they found the boundaries with a fair amount of regularity.
The Royals were hurtling along with the score at 87/2 at the midway stage, after which the next three overs produced another 36. And just as the century stand was approaching for the duo, it was Samson who was dismissed, yet again looking to clear the ropes of Kieron Pollard. He was caught at mid-wicket by Tilak Verma for 30 of 21 deliveries. Samson and Buttler had put on 85 of 50 balls, to lay the platform for a strong finish.
Jos Buttler after scoring a century
Image: BCCI
A quiet few deliveries followed after the wicket, before Shimron Hetmyer took on Pollard in the 17th over and scored 26 runs off it, with two huge sixes and three boundaries to help push the score towards 170. Mills was given the same treatment in the next over from the southpaw to start with before the bowler brought things back and kept it down to only 12 in the over.
Off the next over, Buttler completed his century of 66 balls before Bumrah castled Hetmyer for 35 of 14 deliveries of the next ball. A few deliveries later, Buttler was knocked over by Bumrah for 100, as the Royals were quickly losing momentum at a crucial stage. And the 19th over finished with R Ashwin being runout, the third RR wicket to fall in Bumrah’s final over.
The Royals added 8 more to the cause but lost two more wickets to Mills in the final over, as the hopes of a 200+ score faded away and they finished with 193.
In response, Mumbai got off to a quick-ish start but also lost a couple of early wickets. While Ishan Kishan was doing his thing at one end, captain Rohit could not add more than 10 to the cause and was dismissed by Prasidh Krishna in the second over. In the fourth, with the score at 40, Mumbai lost another as Anmolpreet Singh was caught by Padikkal for 5.
From then on in, the unheralded Tilak Varma and Kishan had to steady the ship and keep the scoreboard moving as well, and they did just that. The two left handers were putting on a show and Varma, after he got set, was scoring at a faster rate than the senior partner.
The experienced spinners R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal could not do much to restrict the two left handers, who put on a stand of 81 runs of 54 deliveries, to ensure the Royals would not edge ahead after the early wickets. Mumbai remember were without the talented Suryakumar Yadav as well.
Tilak Verma on the attack against RR
Image: BCCI
Kishan got his half-century in the 13th over when a bad bit of fielding gave him four runs off Boult, but the over ended with the Kiwi get the last laugh – sending back the wicket-keeper batter after Navdeep Saini took a superb catch at deep square leg, and hurt himself in the process too. Kishan scored 54 and hit five boundaries and a six during his 43-ball stay.
Meanwhile, at the other end, Varma too was hurtling along towards a half-century, and completed the milestone of Chahal’s over with a boundary. Varma was causing the Royals all sorts of problems, and he started off Ashwin’s final over with a reverse-sweep six, before the veteran spinner cleaned him up for 61 off 33 deliveries. Varma hit five sixes and three boundaries in his knock, setting it up for the home stretch.
Tim David was the next to depart in the next over as Chahal trapped him LBW for 1, knocking over the fifth wicket in the innings. The next delivery had Daniel Sams (0) bamboozled as Buttler took a brilliant catch, running back towards midwicket, reducing MI to six down, with Chahal on a hat-trick. The hat-trick did not happen as M Ashwin’s edge to Karun Nair in the slips was dropped.
It was all up to Pollard from then on in and while he took 11 of Boult’s fourth over, he failed to get the young Krishna away as much as he would have liked. Krishna also saw Pollard dropped in the deep at point by Jaiswal but that over went in the Royals’ favour as MI needed 29 of the final 6.
In the final over, Pollard and MI managed to add only 5 to the cause as the big man lost his wicket of the last ball of the game, giving the Royals a relatively comfortable 23-run win.
Mumbai have now lost both their opening games while the Royals have won both of theirs.
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