Rajasthan Royals (RR) defeated Mumbai Indians (MI) by 9 wickets in match 38 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Monday.
With the win, RR now have 14 points from eight games at the top of the IPL 2024 points table and MI also stayed in sixth with six points.
RR also won their final group stage game at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium a memorable one and have also done the double over Mumbai this season, preserving their home win record against Mumbai that stretches back to 2012 and still have just one loss from eight matches.
IPL 2024: Rajasthan Royals vs Mumbai Indians – HIGHLIGHTS
Despite a rain interruption, RR completed the chase of 180 with eight balls to spare as Yashasvi Jaiswal scored an unbeaten hundred, top-scoring with 104 off 60 balls, and shared an unbroken 109-run stand with Sanju Samson, who stayed not out on 38 to see RR through.
Jos Buttler was the only wicket to fall for RR in their chase after Piyush Chawla bowled the Englishman for 35 off 25 deliveries.
After Jaiswal put on 79 runs for the opening wicket with Jos Buttler (35, 25 balls, 6x4s), he added another unbeaten 109 for the second wicket with Sanju Samson (38 not out).
Jaiswal, who came into this IPL after an immensely successful five-Test series against England, had blown hot and cold. While he repeatedly got quick starts, Jaiswal was not able to convert those into anything substantial until this contest.
The 22-year-old finally overcame the obstacle, unleashing powerful pulls and delightful drives in his knock, which contained nine fours and seven sixes.
With this knock, Jaiswal joined Buttler to have scored a century for RR this season. Between them, the pair shares three centuries in this IPL already.
On a benign surface and up against a lopsided bowling attack, Jaiswal flourished right from the word go and went on to register a knock of the highest quality — one that would bring him back in contention for a spot in India’s squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup.
The massive margin of win for the Royals, meanwhile, consolidated their position at the top of the points table.
The Sanju Samson-led side now has 14 points in its kitty with a Net Run Rate of 0.698 with the win firming up their claim for a spot in the playoffs.
Meanwhile, the tone was set by Royals’ opening pair of Jaiswal and Buttler, who knocked off 61 runs from the target in the power play before the rains intervened.
MI deployed their ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah for two overs in the power play for a mere 11 runs, but the others were exposed again.
As has been the case with MI this year, the other bowlers remained poor despite injecting fresh option in Nuwan Thushara (0/28). RR took 50 runs off the remaining four overs in the power play to stay on top.
The DRS reading showed RR were 20 runs ahead of the par score when the rain halted proceedings.
Jaiswal and Rajasthan Royals picked up from where they left off, peppering almost all areas with exquisite strokes to keep charging towards their target.
Rajasthan Royals were also aided in their cause by ordinary effort in the field by Mumbai Indians.
Jaiswal was given a reprieve by Nehal Wadhera who spilled a catch near the ropes which ended in a six, and soon after, Tim David dropped a regulation chance at long on off Hardik Pandya when Samson was batting on 19.
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Earlier, Sandeep Sharma’s brilliant haul of 5/18 halted MI to 179/9, despite Tilak Varma’s half-century as the Hardik Pandya-led side lost wickets in heap on either side of their fifth-wicket stand to post the lowest total for all teams batting first at this venue in this season.
Opting to bat first on a spin-friendly pitch, Rajasthan bowler Trent Boult struck early in the first over after getting stuck for a boundary by Rohit Sharma through a leading edge. Boult dismissed Rohit on the score of six with a full-length delivery shaping in as the former Mumbai Indians skipper top-edged it straight in the air for a good diving catch to Sanju Samson. It was the 26th time that Boult struck in the first over of the Power-play.
It was a poor start for Mumbai, as both openers departed in the space of nine balls. Sandeep Sharma aimed full, and Ishan Kishan, looking to utilise the swing on offer, handed the ball straight through to keeper Samson.
Suryakumar Yadav, after a series of boundaries against Boult, got out to Sandeep’s scrambled-seam delivery after flicking it straight to mid-wicket. Suryakumar got out on 10 runs in eight deliveries.
Mumbai Indians only managed to put up a score of 45/3 in the Power-play, thanks to Mohammad Nabi’s 18 runs that he scored with a pulled six over square-leg and two fours through the covers in Avesh Khan’s first over.
Rajasthan made another first-over strike as champion bowler Yuzvendra Chahal reached the milestone of 200 wickets–first bowler in the history of IPL. Chahal’s third ball gripped on a good length as Mohammad Nabi closed the face on the front foot, and it was a simple lob catch back into his waiting hands that brought up his 200th IPL wicket. Only two other men have previously reached 200 wickets in a T20 competition: Danny Briggs (219) and Samit Patel (208), both in England’s T20 Blast. Mumbai Indians were 72 for 4 after 10 overs.
Tilak Varma and Nehal Wadhera rebuilt the innings with a steady stand of 68 runs in 41 balls as Ravichandran Ashwin completed his four overs for 31 runs and went wicketless once more having claimed just one in the tournament to date. Tilak Varma completed his fifty in 38 balls — and at 21 years and 166 balls, he was the third youngest to 1000 IPL runs.
Chahal came back with his third over of his spell and was taken into remand as Wadhera and Tilak hammered him for 20 runs (the most expensive of the inning). After Tilak’s first ball six, Wadhera took it upon himself to lead the celebrations with two more sixes in a very significant over. Mumbai were 151 for 4 after 16 overs.
Boult came back into attack for his last over of the spell and broke the big partnership of 99 runs between Wadhera and Verma. It was an attempted uppercut from Wadhera, looking to reach his own fifty, but the returning Trent Boult outfoxed him with the slower short ball.
Nehal Wadhera got out scoring 49 in 24 deliveries. It was a very timely strike from Avesh Khan, who aimed full and straight with Hardik Pandya shuffling to the off-side and nailed him plumb in front with the fast full-toss. Mumbai Indians’ captain got out for a run-a-ball 10.
It was a superb over from Avesh as just six runs came from it. Avesh nailed his length perfectly, and one ball later, Varma holed out to deep mid-on on the first ball of Sandeep’s final over. Varma got out after scoring 65 in 45 deliveries. Gerald Coetzee then swung his bat through his first ball to pick out Shimron Hetmyer and got out on a golden duck.
Tim David finally got the strike back with three balls remaining, but his first swing was a miscue, and his second holed out to deep midwicket. Sandeep closed the over with minimal damage and returned with the stunning figures of 5-18–the best by an Indian bowler for the Royals, and on his return from injury too. Rajasthan restricted Mumbai to 179/9 after just nine runs came in the final two overs.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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