Mumbai Indians (MI) managed to pull off an all-rounder performance in their first match of the season at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi which ended their two-match losing streak as well. A lot of credit for the win goes to Quinton de Kock, who got his form back and scored a fifty which helped MI registered a 7-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals in Delhi.
Chasing the target of 172 runs, MI rode on a superlative 70 off 50 balls from Quinton de Kock to register their third win of IPL 2021 in six matches. De Kock started attacking the Rajasthan bowlers from the word go as he smashed a boundary against Chetan Sakariya. Quinton de Kock and Rohit Sharma’s opening partnership laid the foundation for the chase as they added 49 runs, before Rohit getting dismissed in the 6th over.
WATCH – Rahul Chahar Gave A Fiery Send-off To Yashasvi Jaiswal
The South African opener then added 44 runs for the 2nd wickets with Suryakumar Yadav followed by a 63-run stand for the fourth wicket. Mustafizur Rahman cleaned up Krunal for 39 to break the 63-run partnership but Kieron Pollard hit a boundary and a six off Morris to bring MI close to an emphatic win.
Earlier, Rajasthan Royals rode on small but important cameos from Jos Buttler (41), Sanju Samson (42) to post a competitive 171 for four after being put to bat first by Rohit Sharma. Buttler (41) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (32) laid the foundation with a solid 66-run opening partnership in 7.4 overs. Buttler looked in his elements before being stumped by de Kock off Rahul Chahar for 42.
Coming to bat following the dismissal of Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson managed to churn out three boundaries on his first six balls. Even as Yashasvi Jaiswal fell to Chahar, Sanju Samson continued to chip away at boundaries during the middle-overs. But with Shivam Dube failing to up the momentum for his team, one felt that Samson was under too much pressure to keep the scoreboard ticking.
WATCH – Trent Boult Cleaned Sanju Samson With A Brilliant Yorker
And, it eventually led to his downfall. Shivam Dube smashed a six off Boult in the same over before getting offering a caught & bowled chance to Jasprit Bumrah in the following over. Rajasthan Royals finished strongly though as David Miller and Riyan Parag took 12 runs off the final over to take the score to 4/171 in their quota of 20 overs.
Here is how Twitterati reacted to MI’s win:
Important win for @mipaltan. The opposition has to budget for those two late Bumrah overs. If not the decisive factor, those certainly had a big impact. Biggest cheer though is runs for de Kock
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 29, 2021
An expert run chase by a champion team! 💪
संपला विषय! 😎
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) April 29, 2021
Nothing to see here, go watch #DCvKKR. 🙂
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) April 29, 2021
De Kock lead #MI in the run chase, he scored just 49 runs in first 4 games, then coming to new venue, chasing 172 runs and QDK scored unbeaten 70 runs from 50 balls including 6 fours and 2 sixes. Well played, QDK. pic.twitter.com/pRjsJtL6uU
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) April 29, 2021
Mumbai Indians defeats Rajasthan Royals by 7 wickets. Brilliant batting display by MI today, Quinton De Kock and Krunal Pandya set the chase with their fine knocks. Their bowlers did the job brilliantly as well restricting RR for 171. A much needed win for Mumbai to get going.
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) April 29, 2021
