MUMBAI INDIANS defeated Rajasthan Royals by 100 runs on Thursday, ending Rajasthan’s hopes of making the IPL playoffs.
Batting first at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, Mumbai posted 217-2 after being invited to bat. Rohit Sharma scored 53 off 36 balls and Ryan Rickelton added 61 from 38 balls in a 116-run opening partnership.
After both openers were dismissed, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya hit unbeaten knocks of 48 each to take Mumbai past the 200-run mark. Yadav finished the innings with a six off the last ball.
In reply, Rajasthan were bowled out for 117 in 16.1 overs. Vaibhav Suryavanshi was dismissed for a duck in the first over, and Yashasvi Jaiswal (13) followed soon after. The team was reduced to 20-2 at the end of the second over.
Karn Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah led the Mumbai bowling attack, picking up five wickets between them.
Rajasthan collapsed further as Nitish Rana (9), Riyan Parag (16), Shimron Hetmyer (0), Shubham Dubey (15) and Dhruv Jurel (11) all fell cheaply. By the end of the ninth over, Rajasthan were 76-7.
Jofra Archer scored 30 runs off 27 balls but was unable to prevent the loss.
The win was Mumbai’s sixth in a row and took them to the top of the points table.
Mumbai captain Hardik Pandya said the team had returned to focusing on basic cricket.
"As a group, the way we batted was proper batsmanship...," said Hardik. "Everyone is really clear. We're going back to simple cricket, and it's working for that. We want to take game by game, and be humble and disciplined."
Rajasthan captain Riyan Parag said Mumbai deserved credit.
"Yeah, 190-200 would have been ideal. We've been getting good starts," he said. "But it's up to the middle order... to step up. I think we've done a lot of things right. And a lot of things wrong."
(With inputs from agencies)
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