In the 44th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, Mumbai Indians (MI) beat Rajasthan Royals (RR) by five wickets at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai.
Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bowl first. The decision worked out well as bowlers restricted RR to a below-par score. The pitch was all good to bat on but it was MI who performed amazingly well in the first innings with the ball. Riley Meredith and Jasprit Bumrah maintained pressure on the RR batsmen which led to a low score in the end.
In the chase, Mumbai began well with Ishan Kishan (26) showing some trailer of what actual damage he can do to bowlers. Although the Mumbai based team lost their captain early in the powerplay, the team looked calm and composed further ahead as well. Talking about calmness, Suryakumar Yadav (51) was once again a player to watch out for. The right-handed batsman backed himself to hit some obnoxious shots but along with it, he also hammered some straight down the ground as well. In his innings of a half-century, the MI batsman hit five fours and two sixes to help Mumbai get out of trouble after losing two wickets in the powerplay. Along with Yadav, Tilak Verma (35) also anchored the innings in the middle overs. The youngster put up 81 runs of partnership with Suryakumar until the latter got out in the 15th over. In the end, it was Kieron Pollard (10) and Tim David (20*) who brought Mumbai Indians to their first victory of the season and they did it with four balls to spare.
In the first innings, Jos Buttler (67) continued his fantastic form and scored some heavy runs even today. The Englishman gave a proper start to RR with five fours and four sixes. No one really helped the Jaipur based team to score any important runs further. Captain Sanju Samson (16), who was looking good today, wasted his wicket soon after hitting two sixes. In the end, it was Ravichandran Ashwin (21*) who smashed one six and three fours in nine balls to take RR to a respectable total of 158/6 in 20 overs.
Hritik Shokeen and Riley Meredith got two wickets today in the first innings. Debutant Kumar Kartikeya and Daniel Sams also managed to get one wicket each. For RR, it was one wicket each in the bracket for Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Sen, Trent Boult and Prasidh Krishna.
Suryakumar Yadav was adjudged Man of the Match for his scintillating performance with the bat. Truly it was a birthday gift for Rohit Sharma as the team collects their first two points of the season following their win over RR.
Scorecard:
Rajasthan Royals: 158/6, Overs 20, Jos Buttler 67, Riley Meredith 2/24
Mumbai Indians: 161/5, Overs 19.2, Suryakumar Yadav 51, Ravichandran Ashwin 1/21