Sandeep Sharma’s Five-For and Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 104* Lead Royals to Dominant Victory
Sandeep Sharma’s stellar bowling performance, marked by a five-wicket haul, combined with Yashasvi Jaiswal’s remarkable century, powered the Rajasthan Royals to a convincing victory.
The Royals concluded their campaign’s Jaipur leg with their seventh victory in eight games, solidifying their position at the top.
Mumbai Indians 179 for 9 (Tilak 65, Sandeep 5-18) lost to Rajasthan Royals 183 for 1 (Jaiswal 104*) by nine wickets.
Before Yashasvi Jaiswal returned to form with a brilliant 59-ball century, Sandeep Sharma announced his return from injury with the best figures of any bowler in this season’s IPL. The Rajasthan Royals concluded their campaign in Jaipur with a seventh decisive victory in eight games, solidifying their position atop the table.
The Mumbai Indians’ innings, which depended heavily on a 99-run fifth-wicket stand between Tilak Varma and Nehal Wadhera, ended with a middling 180 for victory. Jaiswal, who had 31 from 18 balls before a 30-minute rain delay, signaled and sealed the Royals’ chase, and he later converted his first fifty of a challenging season into a towering 104 not out from 60 balls.
With the in-form Jos Buttler (35 from 25) and Sanju Samson (109 in 65), Jaiswal added 74 in eight overs. Tim David’s horrendous reprieve at midwicket on 19 was the turning point for Mumbai. At 50, Jaiswal had also suffered a significant setback when, from deep cover, Wadhera hit Piyush Chawla with a leading-edge swipe that went over the ropes for six.
Mumbai’s two standout bowlers of the season were used to encapsulate their performance. Gerald Coetzee bowled like the wind in his one powerplay over, clearly troubling Jaiswal with his pace of over 150 kph, especially with a top-edged draw that sailed over the keeper for four, after being worked up by a first-ball slap for six. However, Jaiswal did not give him another over until the 1980s, by which time the match was already gone and he again got a well-set batter to falter.
Even though Jasprit Bumrah bowled with unmatched energy early on, limiting Buttler’s early ambitions with a two-run first over, he was also kept back too late in the chase, and when he did come back, his comeback over was unsuccessful. After a first-ball no-ball and a second-ball wide on height, Jaiswal swung the rolled-over free hit for six runs, making it Bumrah’s most costly over of a brilliant season, at 16 runs.
Sandeep And Boult Shined In The Powerplay
Three weeks prior, at the Wankhede, Trent Boult had stunned the home crowd of Mumbai by taking the valuable wicket of Rohit Sharma, who nicked his opening ball of the game—and his sixth of the innings—to Sanju Samson behind the stumps. In the rematch, it was a case of rinse and repeat: Rohit c Samson b Boult, again from the fifth ball, but with six on the board.
After a furious swing across the entire length and one filleted four through the deep third, Samson rushed around the stumps and gathered with a tumble. It was noteworthy because this was Boult’s 26th strike in the opening over of his IPL career.
Mumbai had won the toss and elected to bat first, provided that there wouldn’t be much dew available for Jaipur’s chase. Nonetheless, there was enough movement off a different dry surface to reward the Royals’ attacking full lengths, and Sandeep started a remarkable performance in style by reducing his opponents to a pitiful 20 for 3 after one ball of the fourth over.
His first victim was Ishan Kishan, who went fishing to Sandeep’s wide line but was tantalisingly pushed up into his arc and caught behind for a third-ball duck. Subsequently, following a barrage of two fours in three balls that had suggested wealth to follow, Suryakumar Yadav whacked the ball over the jumbled seam without timing and was already giggling as it fell into Rovman Powell’s clutches at midwicket.
With an 18-run burst against Avesh Khan’s opening over, Mohammad Nabi brought the powerplay to a close, but at 45 for 3, the damage at the top was clearly evident.
200 IPL wickets For Chahal
In the history of T20 cricket, only two bowlers—Danny Briggs and Samit Patel, who both participated in the T20 Blast—had taken 200 wickets in a single match. Yuzvendra Chahal became the third player on that list when he removed Nabi in his opening over of the evening, and that too against Mumbai – the franchise he had made a memorable, wicketless debut for in his first IPL season back in 2013.
On his third delivery, Nabi, who is 23 years old, produced another excellent stroke of bowling as he locked his face on the front foot and lobbed a leading edge back to the bowler. As his teammates surrounded him, Chahal fell to his knees, realizing what a remarkable feat of endurance and skill he had just accomplished. Mumbai was also on their knees at 52 for 4.
Mumbai Fought Back
Initially measured, especially during R Ashwin’s four wicketless overs for 31, and thereafter with increasing confidence, Mumbai’s comeback was solely attributed to two of their younger players. Tilak spearheaded the attack with a determined 65 off 45, reaching his fifty with a six that also made him the third-youngest player to reach 1000 IPL runs at age 21 years and 166 days.
But it was the less well-known Wadhera, who was playing in his first game of the year, who gave this incredibly high-scoring edition the boost it needed. Three fours and four sixes were included in his 49 from 24 balls, two of which came from Chahal, who just a few moments before had believed he had trapped Tilak lbw for 55 on the reverse sweep.
However, DRS revealed that the ball was missing, and the couple celebrated the reprieve with unparalleled vigor, demonstrating the significance of their stance. However, it turned out that when Boult was sent back to bat for his final over, their partnership would end on 99 from 54 balls. Wadhera could only lob the slower-ball bouncer he delivered to backward point with his opening delivery.
Sandeep’s Incredible Five-For
Mumbai was still targeting a 200-run total at 170 for 5 in the 18th over, but the Royals’ death bowlers had other plans. Even with Tim David trying to break loose, Avesh was spot on to pin Hardik Pandya leg before wicket for ten as he walked across his stumps. Sandeep then sealed down the innings with just six runs lost.
Powell gave a diving catch to halt Tilak’s fine effort at long-on, and then Coetzee’s first-ball blast caught Shimron Hetmyer off the ground. With three balls left, David managed to regain the strike, but not before he identified a boundary rider to take three wickets in the over, leaving Sandeep with 5 for 18.
Also Read: IPL Winners List From 2008 to 2023: Records, Teams, and Historic Moments
Sandeep’s numbers were not only the best by an Indian bowler for the Royals, but they also signaled a victorious comeback following an injury-plagued season. Prior to that, he had taken only one wicket in two games before a side strain kept him out of action for the better part of a month.
Jaiswal’s Magnificent Ton
Jaiswal’s IPL career has taken a turn for the worst with just 121 runs and a top score of 39 in seven previous knockout matches, after two double-centuries and over 700 runs in an astonishing Test performance against England. However, there has never been any questioning his prodigious talent, and the Royals bench was quite impressed when he eventually scored his first fifty runs this campaign. After all, they lead the standings at the halfway point. If he is peaking for the finish, that bodes well for their chances of winning a second championship.
It seemed as though he had never left at the end. He hit eight fours and seven sixes over his innings, including the game-winning drive through point off Tilak with eight balls remaining unplayed. Under his leadership, the Royals have a four-point lead at the top and are improving with each game.
Hardik’s Points Of View On The Loss
Following the Mumbai Indians’ 9-wicket loss to the Rajasthan Royals in the 2024 Indian Premier League, skipper Hardik Pandya acknowledged that the squad still had shortcomings.
With a convincing 9-wicket victory, Rajasthan Royals virtually guaranteed their passage into the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 playoffs, leaving Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya on the losing side once more.
The team hasn’t performed well enough in any of the three game aspects, according to Hardik, who has been in the public eye since taking over for Rohit Sharma as captain of the team. Hardik said that it’s time to identify shortcomings and improve on them as the Mumbai Indians’ inaccuracies in the field, at the batting, and bowling departments continue to cost them crucial games.
“We got into problems really quickly. It was amazing how Tilak and Nehal batted. We didn’t really believe we would even reach 180 after we lost a few wickets early. We were short by ten to fifteen runs because we couldn’t finish strong. When bowling, we had to keep it within the stumps. We offered a lot of width early in the powerplay, and I don’t think we had the finest day on the field overall. Ultimately, we didn’t play well, and in the end, they outperformed us,” Hardik remarked during the presentation ceremony following the game.
Some players are still in the game who haven’t scored this season. Hardik, nevertheless, disagrees with identifying certain players and having one-on-one conversations with them. The MI captain is still confident in the players’ professionalism and wants to see them make up for their errors.
“Going to the players after the game is not appropriate; they are all professionals and understand their jobs. All we can do is take what we’ve learned from the game and our mistakes, make the necessary corrections, and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Progress is crucial. We will all need to own our shortcomings as members of the team and perhaps address them,” he said.
Hardik still has faith in the Mumbai team, despite the fact that they have lost five of their last eight games. As the team approaches a pivotal point in the campaign, he all but ruled out making significant changes to the starting lineup.
“I prefer to support players and I don’t think much of chip and chop. Our main priorities should always be to play good cricket, adhere to our plans, and avoid making simple mistakes. As long as we keep things basic, cricket is wonderful “, he said.
