On double-header Saturday, Rajasthan Royals (RR) gathered their second win on the trot by defeating the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the 9th game of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022.
In a see-saw battle, the Royals defeated the MI by 23 runs. After being asked to bat first, RR suffered early setbacks in the form of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal but had a rapid recovery as Jos Buttler led the onslaught.
Buttler, with Sanju Samson, wasted no time to counter-attack as they set the tone for the batters to come. Basil Thampi's first over had carnage written all over it, with the Englishman racking up five successive boundaries.
Samson channelled his inner beast and aided Buttler as Mumbai dealt with the offence. Soon, Pollard struck with the prized wicket of the Rajasthan skipper. Later, Shimron Hetmyer carried on with the charge and smashed his Caribbean teammate all over the park.
Meanwhile, Buttler brought up his second IPL century off just 66 deliveries. However, his innings did slow a bit before Jasprit Bumrah bowled him.
At one stage, RR eyed a total of more than 200 runs. But they were reduced to 193 with a flurry of wickets at the end.
Mumbai, in reply, could reach only 170 runs and fell short of the target by a 23-run margin. Captain Rohit Sharma departed at the score of 10, while Anmolpreet Kaur was sent back for just five runs.
Ishan Kishan had a quick start but eventually played a slowish 54-run knock. However, Tilak Varma's innings ignited the belief in the MI camp. The youngster took the challenge head-on and gave RR a run for their money. Tilak scored 61 runs off mere 33 deliveries, and it took a special ball from Ravichandran Ashwin to get the better of him.
Yuzvendra Chahal provided the crucial wickets of Tim David and Daniel Sams, which almost made the match one-way from thereon. Pollard played until the last ball, but the West Indian power-hitter also failed miserably today, scoring 22 runs during his stay at the crease.
With this win, the double-R's are enjoying the top position in the points table, while MI lies at the ninth spot, having lost their games thus far.
Brief scores:
Rajasthan Royals - 193/8
Jos Buttler-100(68), Shimron Hetmyer-35(14)
Jasprit Bumrah-17/3;
Mumbai Indians - 170/8
Tilak Varma-61(33), Ishan Kishan-54(43)
Yuzvendra Chahal-26/2
Rajasthan Royals won by 23 runs