Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians are facing each other in the 51st match of the Indian Premier League 2021 in Sharjah. This game is a virtual knockout game for both teams and whoever loses will be knocked out mathematically from this season.
Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bowl first. Quinton de Kock and Krunal Pandya made way for Ishan Kishan and James Neesham in the playing XI. On the other hand, Sanju Samson brought Shreyas Gopal and Kuldip Yadav in place of Mayank Markande and Akash Singh.
Also Read: Rajasthan Royals thumps table-toppers CSK, twitter reacts
Evin Lewis and Yashasvi Jaiswal came out with all guns blazing and started scoring boundaries from the word go. Yashasvi was looking dangerous and threatened to replicate his heroics of the CSK game but Nathan Coulter-Nile dismissed him for 12. Jasprit Bumrah, then, trapped Lewis in front of the wicket and hampered RR’s quick start.
RR sunk further with Jimmy Neesham removing Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube in his first two overs. Glenn Phillips and David Miller were in the middle and had the onus to do the repair job. But the former got out to Coulter-Nile. None of the RR batsmen managed to bat well against a lethal MI bowling lineup.
Only two boundaries were scored after the powerplay and they came from Mustafizur Rahman and Chetan Sakariya’s bat as RR managed to score 90/9 in 20 overs. Neesham (3/12), Bumrah (2/14) and Coulter-Nile (4/14) combinedly took 9 wickets for 40 runs in 12 overs.
Also Read: Rajasthan Royals hilariously refers Parvez Rasool as MI skipper Rohit Sharma
It is the lowest total in the IPL 2021 and in Sharjah. The second-lowest when the team batting first played out 20 overs without getting all-out.
Twitter applauded this bowling display of MI. Some of those famous tweets are;
Cometh the hour, cometh the man! Take a bow champ. Outstanding bowling 🤩👏 #NathanCoulterNile #IPL2021 #MIvRR #Mi @mipaltan
— Vinay Kumar R (@Vinay_Kumar_R) October 5, 2021
Such a poor batting performance by #RR. Unfathomable game plan. Not the kind of pitch where they had chased down 189 v CSK the other night. Runs had to be earned which required discipline and patience. Score of 130-135 would have tested MI. What RR managed seems wholly inadequate
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) October 5, 2021
Can they get to 100? #MIvsRR
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) October 5, 2021
Wake me up when this pitch wakes up 😴 #MI #RR #IPL2021
— Gaurav Kapur (@gauravkapur) October 5, 2021
Rajasthan Royals are not very good, but I am a bit worried about the WC, when the IPL isn't done and Neesham is taking 4-0-12-3 bowling cutters on a pitch with inconsistent bounce. I know predicting conditions is a fools errand, but I think we all want things to improve.
— Ben Jones (@benjonescricket) October 5, 2021
