Rajasthan Royals beat defending champions Mumbai Indians by 8 wickets at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi and registered their fifth win of the season while Mumbai Indians suffered their fourth loss.
Earlier Mumbai Indians won the toss and opted to bat first. Inform Quinton de Kock opened his account with a six but on the next ball Jofra Archer dismissed him. Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav took the score to 90 runs in 11 overs and set the platform for a big score but Kartik Tyagi and Shreyas Gopal brought their team back into the game by dismissing Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, and Kieron Pollard and Mumbai Indians reduced to 101/4 in 13 overs.
In the end, Hardik Pandya changed his gears and smashed Kartik Tyagi and Ankit Rajpoot for 27 runs each and his 60* runs off 21 balls knock helped Mumbai to post a big total of 195/5 on the board.
In reply Rajasthan Royals lost Robin Uthappa and Steven Smith cheaply off James Pattinson bowling at 44/2 they're in trouble. Ben Stokes and Sanju Samson rebuilt the innings and Stokes brought up his first IPL fifty in three years. In the last 8 overs, Rajasthan needed 80 odd runs to win but both Stokes and Samson had some other plans and kept smashing Mumbai bowlers and made the chase easy.
Stokes brought up his second IPL hundred with a six and then hit a winning four in the 19th over. He played 107* runs knock while Samson supported him with 54* runs.
All the major stats and facts from the 45th match between Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians in Abu Dhabi :
1 - Ben Stokes became the first-ever batsman to score 2 hundreds while chasing in IPL. He scored 103* against Gujarat Lions in IPL 2017 and 107* against Mumbai Indians in this IPL.
23 - Sanju Samson has hit 23 sixes in this IPL season - most by any batsman.
Most sixes in IPL 2020 -
23 - Sanju Samson
22 - Nicholas Pooran
20 - Ishan Kishan / KL Rahul
19 - AB de Villiers
18 - Hardik Pandya / Kieron Pollard
52 - Hardik Pandya scored 52 runs in his last 12 balls. He hit 7 sixes and 2 fours in these 12 balls.
Hardik Pandya 60* (21) balls innings -
First 9 balls - 8 runs
Next 12 balls - 52 runs
107* - Runs score is the highest individual score for Ben Stokes in IPL as well as in T20 cricket and it is also his first 50 plus score in IPL since 2017.
152* - Ben Stokes and Sanju Samson's 152* runs partnership is the highest ever partnership for any wicket for Rajasthan Royals in IPL.
Highest partnerships for RR in IPL -
152* - B Stokes / S Samson (3rd wkt) vs MI at Abu Dhabi, 2020
144 - A Rahane / S Watson (1st wkt) vs CSK at Ahmedabad, 2015
135 - N Ojha / G Smith (1st wkt) vs KXIP at Durban, 2009
134* - S Watson / R Dravid (1st wkt) vs MI at Mumbai, 2011
130 - A Rahane / S Smith (2nd wkt) vs DC at Jaipur, 2019
196 - Runs target chased down by Rajasthan Royals is the highest ever against Mumbai Indians by any team in the Indian Premier League.
Highest targets successfully chased down against MI in IPL -
196 - RR at Abu Dhabi, 2020
195 - DC at Mumbai, 2018
188 - RR at Mumbai, 2019
