Mumbai Indians opened their winning account in IPL 15 by defeating Rajasthan Royals.
Opting to bowl first, the five-time champions restricted RR to 158/6. Riley Meredith starred with the ball for MI, claiming two wickets by conceding 24 runs in his four overs.
In reply, Mumbai rode on Suryakumar Yadav’s half-century (51 off 39 balls) and contributions from Tilak Varma (35 off 30 balls), Ishan Kishan (26 off 18 balls), and Tim David (20* off 9 balls) to get over the line with four deliveries to spare.
After the game, MI opener Ishan Kishan said that the Rohit Sharma-led side wants to win the remaining games and make IPL 2022 tough.
"It does (victory means a lot), because it's not an easy time for us. We need to stick together as a team. We didn't win matches earlier, but loved the effort put by the team today," Kishan said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
"You will lose wickets, you will score runs, such things happen in cricket. The intent from every batter was to finish the game. Hopefully we win a few more matches in the upcoming games.
"I was keeping for 20 overs and figured out the wicket wasn't easy to score sixes. My intent was to get boundaries in the powerplay to make it easier for the other batters, so that they could come in and score freely. We want to win all the games and make the tournament tough. We need to forget this match and focus on the next game now," he added.
Despite the victory, MI's chances of qualifying for the playoffs are all but over. They will face table-toppers Gujarat Titans in their next match on May 6.