BOMBAY DYING

Mumbai Indians loses third consecutive game, goes down to Rajasthan by 6 wickets

MUMBAI: Rajasthan Royals inflicted a six-wicket defeat on an embattled Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League clash here on Monday. Set to chase a paltry 126, Rajasthan chased it down with 27 balls remaining. By virtue of this win, Rajasthan surged to the top of the table with three wins from three matches, while five-time champion Mumbai has suffered its third defeat on the trot to languish at the bottom.

Riyan Parag continued his rich vein of form scoring an unbeaten 54 (39b, 5x4, 3x6) after his team got off to a shaky start in pursuit of a low total.

Earlier, Yuzvendra Chahal (3/11) and Trent Boult (3/22) stifled Mumbai and restricted it to 125/9.

Boult struck early with a three-wicket burst inside the powerplay and Chahal made life miserable for rest of the batters in the following overs to return brilliant figures 3/11 in four overs, accounting for Hardik Pandya (34), Tilak Varma (32) and Gerald Coetzee (4).

If Chahal suffocated the MI batters in the middle overs while stopping both Pandya and Varma in their tracks, it was Boult who ran riot in the home side’s top order, dismissing Rohit Sharma, Naman Dhir and Dewald Brevis for ducks.

The tone was set in the first over itself by Boult who rocked the Mumbai Indians twice, including the priced scalp of Rohit who was out for a golden duck.

Dhir (0) was guilty of walking across the wickets and failing to cover Boult’s in-swing, with the ball crashing into his pads. Mumbai’s situation worsened when impact player Brevis (0) played one meekly to short third on another delivery angling away from the right-hander off Boult in the third over, with Nandre Burger (2/32) taking a sharp reverse cupped catch.

Ishan Kishan (16) played a few attractive strokes but Burger found an outside edge off the left-hander’s bat with Samson completing another fine grab behind the wickets to keep Mumbai Indians under the pump in the powerplay.

Pandya, who was booed from all parts of the ground here, walked to a similar reception but a brief fightback from him turned the negative noise into cheers.

The Mumbai skipper showed intent when he hit three fours off Burger in the sixth over, but it was Chahal who brought an end to Pandya’s resistance.

Chahal tossed one outside offstump to make Pandya have a go at it, and the batter obliged with a big swing of the bat but the ball did not travel far enough.

The substitute fielder Rovman Powell read the elevation and speed well to cover a few yards to his right and take a fine diving catch, denying Pandya an opportunity to be a hero for his side.

BRIEF SCORES: Mumbai Indians 125/9 in 20 overs (T Boult 3/22, Y Chahal 3/11) lost to Rajasthan Royals 127/4 in 15.3 overs (R Parag 54*, A Madhwal 3/20)