Mumbai Indians (MI) opened their winning account in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) as they defeated Rajasthan Royals (RR) by five wickets at DY Patil Stadium on Saturday (April 30).
Asked to bat first, RR rode on opener Jos Buttler’s 52-ball 67 to post 158/6 on the board. R Ashwin also played a notable cameo of 9-ball 21 during Royals’ innings.
Riley Meredith starred with the ball for MI, claiming two wickets by conceding 24 runs in his four overs. Hrithik Shokeen (2-47) also picked a couple of scalps but he was quite expensive with the ball while Kumar Kartikeya (1-19) and Daniel Sams (1-32) chipped in with wicket apiece.
In reply, the five-time champions lost skipper Rohit Sharma for just 2 while his opening partner Ishan Kishan fell for 26. The duo of Suryakumar Yadav (51 off 39 balls) and Tilak Varma (35 of 30 balls) added 81 runs for the third wicket to bail MI out of trouble.
However, both of them got out in successive overs to put MI in a spot of bother once again. Afterwards, the pair of Kieron Pollard and Tim David rose to the occasion, stitching 33 runs for the fifth wicket.
While Pollard got out in the final over for 10 with MI still needing 4 runs, Tim David held the one end firmly and stayed unbeaten on 20 off 9 balls. After Pollard’s wicket, Daniel Sams arrived in the middle and he smashed Kuldeep Sen for a huge six on the very first ball to seal the deal for MI with four deliveries to spare.
For their maiden victory in the IPL 2022 season, Mumbai Indians side received compliments from the cricket fraternity on Twitter.
Here are the reactions:
