BUTTLER TAKES IT AWAY FROM MUMBAI INDIANS
Jos Buttler starred with the bat yet again as he hit an entertaining 94 not out to power Rajasthan Royals to a seven-wicket win against Mumbai Indians in a crucial Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.
Finishing the match with a six off Hardik Pandya, Buttler helped Rajasthan Royals chase down the 169-run target in 18 overs and move to 12 points in the table and stay in contention for playoffs.
Mumbai Indians, the defending champions, got off to a horrendous start, losing six of their first eight matches and with the defeat to Rajasthan Royals they will require some extra efforts in the remaining matches to make it to the playoffs. The Rohit Sharma-led franchise has 10 points from 12 games.
Mumbai Indians, the defending champions, got off to a horrendous start, losing six of their first eight matches and with the defeat to Rajasthan Royals they will require some extra efforts in the remaining matches to make it to the playoffs. The Rohit Sharma-led franchise has 10 points from 12 games.
Earlier, Rajasthan Royals produced a disciplined bowling effort to restrict Mumbai Indians to 168/6.
Asked to bat first, Mumbai were off to steady start with Evin Lewis and Suryakumar Yadav coming up with an opening partnership of 87 runs off 64 balls.
Lewis, who narrowly survived being caught by Stuart Binny in the third over, made good use of the reprieve to blast his way to 60 runs off 42 deliveries. His quick-fire knock included four boundaries and as many sixes.
Suryakumar, who also got an early let-off, being dropped by Krishna Gowtham off Dhawal Kulkarni early in the second over, went on to post a steady 38 off 31 deliveries.
Although the opening duo gave the hosts a strong platform for a big total, the rest of the Mumbai batsmen failed to capitalise.
The Rajasthan bowlers did well to bag five wickets over the next six overs to make a strong comeback. Jofra Archer was the most impressive of the bunch, giving away a mere 16 runs in his four overs while claiming the crucial wickets of Suryakumar and Rohit Sharma.
Fellow pacer Ben Stokes bowled well in the late stages to return figures of 2/26. Indian pacers Jaydev Unadkat and Dhawal Kulkarni also got a wicket each as Mumbai seemed in real danger of failing to cross the 150-run mark.
However, Hardik Pandya helped the hosts to a competitive total with a late charge, scoring 36 runs off 21 balls before holing out to Stokes in the penultimate ball of the innings. —