They have made changes all season but finally the ones made for a match came good as Mumbai Indians got off the mark for the 2022 season by defeating Rajasthan Royals in an Indian Premier League match at DY Patil Stadium Navi Mumbai on Saturday.
Kartikeya Kumar, a left-arm mystery spinner who was drafted into the squad recently, and Tim David, who was brought back into the batting lineup, provided telling contributions as MI ended their 8-match losing streak with a 5-wicket win.
Suryakumar Yadav (player of the match) and Tilak Varma, two of the best MI batters of the season, put up a superb third wicket partnership that seemed to put MI on cruise control but they were dismissed in the space of three balls to cause some nerves to the dugout, with birthday boy Rohit Sharma anxiously looking on.
But David’s cameo at the end was critical to take MI home.
For RR, Jos Buttler recovered from a sluggish start to score a 52-ball 67 as Royals scored 158/6. But with dew setting in later on, things got easier for batting and even a struggling MI lineup couldn’t mess this chase up though they tried their best with a stumble towards the finish line. The second highest scorer for RR was R Ashwin (21 off 9 balls) who played a cameo to take RR past 150-run mark.
Among MI bowlers, Riley Meredith (2/24) accounted for two wickets, while debutant spinner Kumar impressed with his one for 19 in his four overs and Daniel Sams (1/32) snapped up one.Hrithik Shokeen too took two but he went for too many runs, while pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah (0/27) was on the mark with his economical bowling.
MI chased down the target in 19.2 overs with Suryakumar (51 off 39 balls) emerging as the top scorer. Yadav in company of Varma (35) added 81 for their stand, before David (20) finished the job with Daniel Sams scoring the winning six.
“The real potential came out today, with the ball especially,” Rohit said after the match. “They kept applying the pressure. If you keep taking wickets, it’s going to be difficult for them, we did that perfectly today.”
RR captain Sanju Samson said, “We could have scored few more runs. Dew came in and it was tough to bowl as the ball was getting wet. Batting first here was tough as it was two-paced. Few more runs with the bat would have helped.”
| Team | Pld | Won | Lost | Net RR | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GT | 9 | 8 | 1 | 0.377 | 16 |
| RR | 9 | 6 | 3 | 0.450 | 12 |
| LSG | 9 | 6 | 3 | 0.408 | 12 |
| SRH | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0.600 | 10 |
| RCB | 10 | 5 | 5 | -0.558 | 10 |
| DC | 8 | 4 | 4 | 0.695 | 8 |
| PBKS | 9 | 4 | 5 | -0.470 | 8 |
| KKR | 9 | 3 | 6 | -0.006 | 6 |
| CSK | 8 | 2 | 6 | -0.538 | 4 |
| MI | 9 | 1 | 8 | -0.836 | 2 |
Brief scores
Rajasthan Royals: 158 for 6 in 20 overs (Jos Buttler 67 off 52 balls, Riley Meredith 2/24)
Mumbai Indians: 161 for 5 in 19.2 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 51; R Ashwin 1/21)