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It was a crunch clash between the Rajasthan Royals and the Mumbai Indians as both teams looked to continue their winning run and push for the playoffs spot. Both the teams were level on points before today’s game. Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and elected to field first. Mumbai got off to a good start courtesy of some sloppy fielding from Rajasthan.
Mumbai were 86/0 at the end of the first 10 overs and looked set to score in excess of 180 but an exceptional comeback by the Royals' bowlers pegged things back and restricted Mumbai for just 168 runs.
In reply, Rajasthan lost D’arcy Short in the very first over but Jos Buttler continued in his rich vein of form and forged a good partnership with Ajinkya Rahane. Buttler batted like a man possessed and smashed his 5th consecutive fifty of this year’s IPL. The Royals romped home with 12 balls to spare. Let us have a look at the 4 reasons why Mumbai lost.
#1 Failure to capitalize on a good start
Mumbai got off to an excellent start courtesy of a big opening partnership between Evin Lewis and Suryakumar Yadav. The duo laid a solid platform for the middle order by adding 86 runs off the first 10 overs. Mumbai looked set to score in excess of 190 but a remarkable comeback by Rajasthan’s bowlers applied the brakes on the scoring rate.
Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer bowled some tight overs between them and got some good support from Jaydev Unadkat as Mumbai kept losing wickets at regular intervals and could only manage to score 168 runs off their allotted overs.
#2 Jofra Archer’s stupendous spell
Jofra Archer’s superb bowling has been a major factor in the revival of Rajasthan in this year’s IPL. Ever since his debut, he has bowled his heart out for the Royals. Today as well, Archer executed a dream spell, giving away just 16 runs and picking up 2 vital wickets. Archer was a bit unlucky at the start as Stuart Binny dropped an easy catch off his bowling in his first over.
However, Archer came back strongly in his 2nd over by picking up the wickets of Suryakumar Yadav and Rohit Sharma on consecutive balls and turning the match on its head. Archer was superb at the death as he gave away just 9 runs of his remaining 2 overs at the death.
#3 Buttler continues his good form
The move to send Jos Buttler up the order has worked wonders for Rajasthan Royals. The English wicket-keeper batsman has smashed 4 fifties on the trot as an opener and has almost single-handedly won games for Rajasthan in their past few matches.
Buttler continued from where he had left off against Chennai on Friday and displayed some excellent power hitting. Whenever the required run rate kept going up, he would come up with the big shot to keep the Royals in the game. His 94 run knock turned out to be the difference between the 2 sides.
#4 Bumrah’s off day
Jasprit Bumrah has not been at his best in this year’s IPL. He has struggled for control in the death overs and has gone for plenty. Today, as well Bumrah was not at his usual best and leaked runs. Things did not start off well for him as he went for 13 runs of his first over.
With the match nicely poised, Rohit threw the ball to Bumrah in the 15th over but he bowled too short and was smashed for 14 runs. His final figures read 34/1 off the 3 overs he bowled. Being the senior bowler of the side, a lot more is expected of Bumrah.
