Mumbai Indians players celebrate a Rajasthan Royals wicket in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
Mumbai Indians are growing from strength to strength this season as the defending champions are now sitting top of the table with their fourth win of IPL 2020 against a struggling Rajasthan Royals.
The side pushed aside the inaugural IPL winners for a massive 57–run victory after MI pacers Jasprit Bumrah (18/4) and Trent Boult (26/2) ran through the RR top-order inside the powerplays while defending 194.
This came after some fireworks from Suryakumar Yadav (79 runs off 47), Rohit Sharma (35 off 23), and Hardik Pandya (30 off 19) left RR bowlers in ruins.
Chasing 194, MI pacers wasted no time with three wickets in opening three overs. Opener Yashashvi Jaiswal (0 off 1), Steve Smith (6 off 7) and Sanju Samson (0 off 3) where back to pavilion with just 12 runs on board.
Trent Boult picked two of them, including Jaiswal of very first ball of the innings while Jasprit Bumrah played down RR skipper Smith.
The only positive in RR innings was Jos Buttler, who tried bringing semblance to the chase with a fighting knock of 70 off 44, laced with five sixes and four boundaries.
However, lack of support from the other end meant that Buttler fell in the 13th over with just 98 runs on board, triggering further collapse as RR was bundled out for 136 with last five wickets falling for 38 runs. RR were bundled out fore mere 136.
Earlier, Suryakumar hit 11 fours and two sixes, one of which was off Jofra Archer after he was hit in the head by a bouncer off the previous delivery by the English bowler.
MI were buoyed by a good start provided by openers Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock before the latter became Kartik Tyagi's debut IPL wicket in the fifth over. The opening partnership produced 49 runs.
Suryakumar then anchored the innings but MI kept losing wickets at the other end. Hardik Pandya, however, stuck with him and the pair blazed 76 runs in just 38 balls to propel MI close to the 200-run mark.
