OPENER Quinton de Kock bounced back to form and so did Mumbai Indians as they defeated Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets in an IPL 2021 match on Thursday (29).
Put in to bat, powered by skipper Sanju Samson's 42 and Jos Buttler's 41, Rajasthan scored a competitive 171 for 4. But de Kock's fluent 50-ball 70 helped Mumbai reach the target in 18.3 overs.
Openers de Kock and Rohit Sharma (14) put up 49 for the first wicket, with Krunal Pandya chipping in with a handy cameo of 39 off 26 balls.
Rohit fell in the sixth over, handing a simple catch to Chetan Sakariya at mid-on. In the seventh over, Rahul Tewatia conceded 14 runs before Chris Morris brought back Rajasthan with the scalp of Suryakumar Yadav (16).
Krunal joined de Kock at the crease, who got to this fifty off 35 balls and a reprieve too in the process. After the end of 15 overs, Mumbai needed 41 runs from the last five overs.
De Kock and Krunal added 63 runs for the third wicket and got the side closer to the target, with Morris going for 16 runs in the 18 runs. Then it was left to Kieron Pollard and de Kock to give the final touch.
Earlier, Rajasthan were off to a solid start as openers Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal (32 off 20) put up a 66-run stand in 7.4 overs.
After getting a reprieve, Buttler took his chances against spinners, especially Jayant Yadav. At the other end, Jaiswal too changed gears and hit Nathan Coulter-Nile for a boundary and a six off successive deliveries.
Before Buttler could do more damage, Rahul Chahar (2 for 33), dismissed him, stumped by de Kock.
Samson started with a boundary, but Chahar struck again, this time removing Jaiswal.
Shivam Dube (35 off 31 balls) and Samson, who hit five boundaries, added 57 runs for the third wicket. Samson kept playing his shots, as he hit two successive boundaries in the 16th over off Boult.
But once Samson was removed by Boult and Dube fell to Jasprit Bumrah, Mumbai managed to keep things tight and gave only 45 runs in the last five overs.
England's Jamie Overton celebrates after taking the wicket of West Indies' Gudakesh Motie. Reuters/Andrew Boyers