With hopes to break the losing spree, Rajasthan Royals invited Mumbai Indians to bat first on a batting track of Wankhede Stadium. Rohit Sharma came back with a bang and gave Mumbai a solid start along with Quinton de Kock. Both shared 96 runs for the opening wicket but Rohit couldn’t convert a good start into a big innings. De Kock was unmoved by this and stroked Rajasthan bowlers in all corners of the park. He scored 81 runs in 52 balls, where he hit six fours and four sixes. Hardik Pandya’s cameo at death took Mumbai’s total to 187/5 in 20 overs.
In response, Rajasthan started their run-chase positively. Both openers were rescued by DRS and scored 59 runs inside the powerplay. Ajinkya Rahane got out after scoring 37 runs off 21 balls. Jos Buttler went berserk after his dismissal and tore Mumbai’s bowling lineup apart with a 43-ball 89 runs, where he hit eight fours and seven sixes. Rajasthan stumbled from 170/2 to 174/6 but Shreyas Gopal remained calm to steer RR pass Mumbai’s total by four wickets. Have a look at the reasons for defeat.
Watch – Buttler smashed Alzarri Joseph for 28 runs in an over
Blazing opening stand
Rajasthan didn’t have a good record in the IPL 2019 while chasing but they shrug the past off with a blazing start against Mumbai Indians. They needed 188 runs in 20 overs and Ajinkya Rahane took no time in going bang-bang. Jos Buttler was helping him from the other end to make most out of the field restrictions. Rajasthan scored 59 runs in the first six overs without losing any wicket, which turned out to be the match-changing phase for them.
Jos Buttler slaughtered Mumbai bowlers
Ajinkya Rahane got out after scoring 37 runs but Jos Buttler stuck to his natural aggressive gameplay. He was scoring boundaries in every over and pulling the required run-rate down. In an Alzarri Joseph over, he smashed four boundaries and two sixes to score 28 runs in that over. Buttler got out after scoring 89 runs in just 43 balls including eight fours and seven sixes.
Watch – Buttler grabs a stunning catch to dismiss De Kock
Over dependency on Bumrah
Mumbai has a star-studded bowling lineup which is no short of variety. But none of them is playing up to their expectations apart from Jasprit Bumrah. The death over king set the game nicely for Mumbai in the last four overs but leaking too many runs upfront hurt them a lot in the end. While Bumrah gave runs at an economy of 5.75, Jason Behrendorff and Alzarri Joseph leaked 10 and 17 runs per over. This sums up the story of misbalanced Mumbai pace battery.
