Mumbai Indians Storm To The Top With 6th Straight Win
Mumbai Indians have once again proved why they are the most successful franchise in IPL history. The team in blue defeated the Rajasthan Royals to move to the top of the table. After just one win in the first five games, MI went on to win their next six games. The team that looked like missing the playoffs is looking like the winning contenders.
Rajasthan Royals were no match for this MI side. The team in pink entered this contest after chasing a big total in the previous game. Rajasthan needed to win their remaining matches to stay in the competition. However, they failed to beat Mumbai and became the second team, after Chennai Super Kings to get eliminated.
Mumbai Indians Best opening stand
Mumbai struggled at the start of the season, and so did their opening pair. Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton have failed to build partnerships at the top. They were up against Jofra Archer and a less-experienced bowling line-up. Both MI openers took advantage of this situation. These two added 58 runs in the batting powerplay.
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The partnership was building nicely. These two were not taking huge risks but were scoring around 10 runs per over. RR bowlers were finding it hard to give a breakthrough. It took them 12 overs to take the first wicket. Maheesh Theekshana knocked out Rickelton’s stumps on 61. The South African scored his third half-century in this edition. MI were 116 for one when Surya stepped in. Rohit Sharma also got out in the next over to Riyan Parag. The Indian captain scored his third fifty of the tournament.
Surya-Hardik take MI past 200
Suryakumar Yadav is in top form this season. He continued his form with a 48-run knock in just 23 balls. Hardik Pandya promoted himself in the batting order. MI’s captain also scored the same number of runs and took 23 balls, like Surya did. This took their team’s total to 217 for two in 20 overs. Surya took the lead in the race for the orange cap.
Batting failure for the home team
Rajasthan’s inconsistent batting has been one of the reasons behind their downfall. Once again, this young line-up failed to capitalise on the opportunity. Vaibhav Suryavanshi failed to open his account after scoring a century in the previous outing. Yashasvi Jaiswal smashed Trent Boult for two sixes but got out in the very same over. Both openers were gone in the first two overs.
The middle order failed miserably. Jofra Archer turned out to be the top scorer with 30 runs. Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, and Karn Sharma combined to remove the long batting order of the home team. Boult and Karn took three wickets each. Bumrah took two wickets that included Parag and Hetmyer on back-to-back deliveries. Deepak Chahar and Hardik added one wicket each to their name. MI won by 100 runs and moved closer to playoff qualification. They need just one win to confirm a top-four berth. RR will have a lot of thinking to do in their remaining matches. They will look to focus on next season.
