Dominant Boult, Chahal, and Parag Propels Rajasthan Royals to 6 Wickets Victory Over Mumbai
Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal and Riyan Parag stars as Rajasthan Royals Beats Mumbai Indians convincingly at Wankhede in IPL 2024 match-up.
With a hat-trick of victories, the Royals moved to the top of the points table after chasing the total down with 27 balls remaining.
Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya’s maiden visit to Wankhede Stadium for IPL 2024 was anything but a fairytale as the five-time champions lost their third straight match, this time with 27 balls remaining. Rajasthan Royals dealt them a severe thrashing, moving to the top of the points table with a hat-trick of wins because to outstanding performances from Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Riyan Parag.
During the first over of the game, Boult dismissed Dewald Drevis, Rohit Sharma, and Naman Dhir for first-ball ducks, leaving Mumbai breathless. His 3 for 22 was only equaled by Chahal’s 3 for 11, as he dominated the middle overs to prevent Mumbai from mounting a batting resistance.
Parag led the Royals’ pursuit of 126 and pulled them out of some early difficulties. With six, six, and four at the end of the game, he maintained his perfect record of 54 and rose to the top of the orange cap leaderboard.
Boult’s Powerplay Masterclass
At this ground, Rohit, the former captain of Mumbai, was expected to be the crowd favorite, but he was only able to bat for one ball before Boult got a ball to swing away from the right-hand batsman and edge it behind. With the next ball, Boult swung it the other way, nipping Dhir with a full ball.
Mumbai called in Impact Player Brevis in the second over itself after two wickets were lost in the first six balls of the match, but he too was caught off guard by the ball that was angling across and was edged to Nandre Burger at short third.
Boult gave the Royals an early edge that they never relinquished, taking three wickets in his first eight deliveries of the match. His final figure was 3 for 22.
Chahal’s Brilliance
Burger joined in after Boult’s blistering initial session as a left-arm seamer. Burger, who was substituting for Sandeep Sharma due to injury, came around the wicket and dismissed Ishan Kishan with a length ball that angled away and removed his edge.
After Mumbai had reached 20 for 4 in 3.3 overs, Tilak Verma, batting at number five, and Hardik, batting at number six, attempted to rally the hosts and nearly succeeded with a 56-run partnership through the fifth wicket. However, Chahal’s dismissals of both batsmen put an end to any possibility of a rally.
Hardik was dismissed on 34 after he holed out at mid-on while attempting to hit Chahal, having already struck six boundaries in his innings. Shortly after, Tilak was dropped on 32 as Chahal’s googly was edged by R Ashwin at short third.
Gerald Coetzee would be removed from the game too late in the first innings by Chahal to end his spell. Of Chahal’s 24 deliveries, sixteen were dots, and he finished his four-over spell with an economy of just 2.75.
Avesh Khan’s late wicket and Burger’s second wicket guarantee Mumbai ended at 125, too low on a pitch that is usually good for batting.
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Madhwal’s Magic
Mumbai’s only chance of winning the chase was to take wickets, and they used their strongest weapon early on when Jasprit Bumrah shared the new ball with Kwena Maphaka for the first time this year.
However, after bowling three of the six powerplay overs, Bumrah was not given a wicket by the Royals batsmen. In his maiden IPL 2024 match, Akash Madhwal claimed three wickets as Yashasvi Jaiswal was dismissed by adolescent team Maphaka.
Sanju Samson chopped a shot onto Madhwal’s stumps with the second ball of his spell, and he added another when Jos Buttler pulled him to fine leg. After that, he would add a third when R Ashwin was dismissed in the 13th over. With his statistics of 3 for 20, he was the most impressive bowler in Mumbai’s defeat.
Riyan Show Continues
Having started the day ranked fifth on the orange-cap list, he left with the cap securely placed on his head. The No. 4 Parag played risk-free cricket early on, with no real pressure from the scoreboard, but they tore into Coetzee’s bowling with four fours and two sixes off the bowler.
In the eighth over, Coetzee hit two consecutive boundaries, then in the eleventh over, he lofted another four over cover. Then, in the fourteenth over, he smoked Bumrah past mid-off before dumping Piyush Chawla over long-on in the fifteenth.
In the sixteenth over, Parag hit Coetzee for six, six, and four to put the final touches on a game that was all but finished. He hit a six over cover to begin the over, and he then slammed a ball past midwicket to achieve his half-century. The winning runs sent Mumbai and the Royals to opposing sides of the points table, sailing over wicketkeeper Kishan to the boundary.
Riyan Parag On Playing At No 4
The move of Riyan Parag to number four is benefiting the Rajasthan Royals. The 22-year-old Parag is no stranger to the position; in the most recent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he led the run-scoring charts with 510 runs at an average of 85 and a strike rate of 182.79. He continued to play like way in the 2024 IPL.
When the Royals were chasing against Mumbai, he found it “pretty simple to calculate everything” during a challenging moment.
With the Royals in slight danger at 42 for 2 chasing 126, Parag came into the match against the Mumbai Indians on Monday riding a 29-ball 43 and an undefeated 45-ball 84. However, he remained composed and saw them over the finish line with an undefeated 39-ball 54. With 181 runs in three innings, he surpassed Virat Kohli to become the joint-highest run scorer in the IPL 2024, although he is first on the list due to a higher strike rate.
After the game, Parag said to the host broadcaster, “This is the exact type of situation I go in to bat in when I play domestically.” “After Ash [R Ashwin] bhai and Jos [Buttler] bhai were dismissed, I thought to myself, ‘This is what I do, this is what I’ve been doing for the last six months playing domestic cricket.'” Therefore, the calculation of everything was fairly easy.”
The Royals had held the Mumbai Indians to 125 for 9, but Kwena Maphaka and Akash Madhwal upset the balance early on. Unfazed, though, Parag continued and managed to calm the camp with a 40-run stand with Ashwin.
In the past, Royals had mostly utilized Parag as a finisher, and his results had been inconsistent.
“I have had three to four years of not performing at all, or even performing if it’s one match a season,” Parag stated. “And you actually return to your hotel room and consider returning to the drawing board when you know you can accomplish something but the performances are not happening. I made an effort to identify the issue and discovered that I wasn’t practicing at this level consistently.
“After the [previous] season, I returned and practiced a lot, and I believe that’s showing now. The performances are a result of my extensive practice [against] these kinds of rapid balls and scenarios.”
