Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler and RR bowlers crushed MI
Two wins in two games for Rajasthan Royals are firmly on top of the points table with a run rate of over 2. The Royals are over the moon, and indeed, it's a different team this year, probably the strongest one in this IPL.
Buttler blows away MItOn the other hand, that's two back-to-back losses to start the season for the Mumbai Indians.
Jos Buttler laid the foundation for the Rajasthan Royal's victory.
The foundation of this victory was led by Jos Buttler, who went on to smash his second IPL century. An innings involving 11 boundaries and 6 huge sixes was well supported by Rajasthan Royal's captain Sanju Samson 30(21) and a brute attack from Shimron Hetmyer 35(14). Mumbai Indians pace attack duo - Jasprit Bumrah, and Tymal Mills took 5 wickets in the last 12 balls of this innings where Rajasthan managed to add just 11 runs. Rajasthan was going well to go way beyond 200 runs by the end of the inning, but the top-class death bowling of Mumbai Indians put a strong brake on it, and Rajasthan Royals finished their innings on 193/8.
Rajasthan bowlers continued to impress.
Rajasthan Royal has put together a highly dangerous bowling attack led by experienced Trent Boult. Prasidh Krishna struck a wicket early in the match just when the Mumbai Indian captain looked in a bit out of touch after hitting his favorite pull shot six. Ishan Kishan managed to play a good inning, making the competition challenging. Still, the duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal took the game away from the hands of Mumbai Indians with three wickets within two overs. Kieron Pollard, towards the end, fell under the pressure of the required run rate, and Navdeep Saini finished the match elegantly with the last ball wicket, winning the match by 23 runs.
Rohit Sharma says, "I thought they batted well to get to 193. Buttler played an exceptional inning; we tried everything to get him out. But I thought 193 on that pitch could've been chased, especially when we needed 70 in 7 overs. But these things can happen, and it's early days. We can learn. (Positives) Few. Bumrah is bowling well. Mills as well. And Tilak played exceptionally. And Ishan's batting was terrific. I thought one of those two batting till the end would've made the difference. (Suryakumar's fitness) He is a key player for us. He comes in straight once he gets fit, but we want him to recover since finger injuries are tricky."
The Royals are the only team to win by batting first this season.
In this IPL, we have seen a common trend on the team batting second wins the match easily. Rajasthan Royals is the only team who won all their matches batting first. All the other teams batting first have played 7 matches and lost all 7.
Mumbai Indians, in the hope of their first victory, will be facing Kolkata Knight Riders on 6th April, who are already confident sitting at the second position in the points table. Rajasthan Royals will face off with Royal Challengers Bangalore on 5th April and would look to continue their winning performance.
Aakash Chopra’s Tweet:
Jos Buttler’s skills to hit the white ball are simply unbelievable…creates angles, plays the field…and often doesn’t even bother about the fielders in the deep, for he deposits the ball 10 rows back.
Michael Vaughan’s Tweet:
Incredible striking from @josbuttler!! I really like the way @rajasthanroyals are shaping up this season.
Harbhajan Singh's Tweet:
Joss the boss... What a 100 @josbuttler class