Rajasthan Royals (RR) coasted to a third consecutive victory, beating Mumbai Indians (MI) on their home turf, the Wankhede Stadium, on Monday (Apr 1) by six wickets. Riyan Parag (54*) came in clutch once again and helped the men-in-pink get over the line when MI kept the RR batters curbed by hitting another well-crafted fifty. 

Parag stitched a couple of mature partnerships with Ravichandran Ashwin and Shubam Dubey and showed that he had finally come of age. The right-hand dasher picked his moments during the chase and steered the ship when it looked like RR might succumb to Wankhede’s voice. 

Chasing an under-par target of 126, RR yet again lost one of their openers cheaply as Yashasvi Jaiswal departed in the first over. 17-year-old Kwena Maphaka, who was taken to the cleaners in the previous match, picked Jaiswal’s wicket to open his IPL account. 

Jos Buttler’s poor run with the bat continued and he walked back to the hut after an attritional 16-ball 13-run inning. Similar was the case with skipper Sanju Samson who left the job on the shoulders of Parag, who did not disappoint the team. 

The defeat meant MI’s winless start to the tournament continued under newly-appointed captain Hardik Pandya who was booed at the start of the match by the home crowd.

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Trent-Burger destroy MI top order

The game was done for in the first half as Trent Boult and Nandre Burger combined to hunt the MI top order. The hosts lost four wickets inside the powerplay and never recovered from there. 

Former captain Rohit Sharma departed on a golden duck as he feathered a wide outside-off delivery by attempting to play it. Naman Dhir also returned to the hut on the very next delivery as he was trapped on the front leg. He went upstairs but the DRS showed it was umpire’s call. 

Impact player Dewald Brevis did not last long either while Ishan Kishan edged one behind after Burger bowled a corker of a delivery. 

Pandya (34) and Tilak Varma (32) played a decent hand but could not bat long with RR fielders expertly backing up their bowlers. As many as eight catches were taken by the RR fielders with a couple of them being extremely difficult chances.   

Playing XI’s:

Mumbai Indians: Ishan Kishan(w), Rohit Sharma, Naman Dhir, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Tim David, Gerald Coetzee, Piyush Chawla, Akash Madhwal, Jasprit Bumrah, Kwena Maphaka 

Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Nandre Burger, Yuzvendra Chahal

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