The Rajasthan Royals’ winning streak was prolonged by Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Riyan Parag, who also made it harder for the Mumbai Indians to get their first points of the season. After MI’s batting collapse and a pitiful total of 125 for 9, which RR chased down with 4.3 overs and six wickets remaining, MI was humiliated in their opening IPL 2024 home match.
MI is messed up by Trent Boult in the PowerPlay
In the opening over of the innings, the New Zealand bowler did what he does best: he took a wicket. He took it a step further and picked two after trapping Naman Dhir’s leg earlier and catching Rohit Sharma from behind. With it, he reached 25 first-over wickets in the Indian Premier League. The fact that no other bowler has picked more than eight indicates how incredible this accomplishment is.
In an attempt to halt the early, startling decline, MI immediately substituted Dewald Brevis for Dhir. That didn’t work out, though, as the South African was out for a duck after outside edging a length ball to Nandre Burger at short third. He was the third batter to be out for a duck.
Burger joined in the party and sent Ishan Kishan packing with a beautiful length ball, proving he was more than simply an ally in the pursuit of wickets. The left-hander gave it a go but was unable to center it, nicking it behind Sanju Samson.
Heel of Wankhede to the rescue?
In a nutshell.
The home crowd jeered Hardik Pandya during the toss, marking the start of his time as MI’s captain at the Wankhede. The fans’ displeasure was so great that Sanjay Manjrekar had to make an unpleasant intervention at the toss, requesting that the supporters behave themselves.
In the fourth over, Hardik came out to bat, and in the sixth over, he hit two fours off Burger. After the PowerPlay, 29 runs were scored in three overs, with the MI captain scoring 18 of them in just ten balls. When Hardik mistimed a powerful hit too long, Yuzvendra Chahal got him, and Hardik fell for 34 off 21—24 of which were boundaries.
What happened next?
Increased dominance by RR.
In the twelfth over, Shimron Hetmyer sent Piyush Chawla back with a fly to his right at backward point. Chahal was bowling out balls outside the off-stump to Tilak Varma, who was waging a lone fight. Varma sliced the ball to Ashwin at short third. Chahal was successful in his attempts to continually float the ball up, and Gerald Coetzee became his third victim of the game when he hit a straight shot to Hetmyer at cover. Chahal ended with a 3 for 11 record, consisting of 16 dot balls and only one four.
barely three runs were lost by Avesh Khan and Burger in the 18th and 19th overs, and in the last over, Jasprit Bumrah hit a short ball to put MI barely over 120.
Anything noteworthy about the pursuit?
In the first over, Kwena Maphaka, a 17-year-old fast bowler for MI, claimed his first wicket, taking out Yashasvi Jaiswal. Hardik Pandya employed his ace Jasprit Bumrah for half of the PowerPlay overs since he had so little to defend, but the RR pair of Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson almost avoided defeat. However, the damage was done by Akash Madhwal on both sides of the PowerPlay. Before Buttler top-edged a short ball to Chawla at fine leg, he had Samson playing one on.The game felt very much alive at 48/3.
But was it?
Not exactly. The most recent batting mainstay for RR, Riyan Parag, brought his composure and assurance to the middle and led his team out of the early pandemonium. First, he lifted a short ball from Gerald Coetzee over the keeper with an upper cut, and he then pulled another for back-to-back fours. He and the promoted R Ashwin did not take any chances to advance the score because the asking rate was less than six.
When Madhwal came back to pick his third of the evening, they reduced the equation to 38 off 48. Tilak Varma was able to get under a leading edge from Ashwin’s bat and make a straightforward catch when it blew up on the off-side.
But Parag continued to nibble cleverly at the objective. In his fourth over, he dismissed a full ball from Bumrah, but he spent the remaining overs with impact substitute and rookie Shubham Dubey. After that, he slog-swept Chawla for a six and finished with an undefeated 54 off 39 balls after concluding with 6, 6, 4 off Coetzee.
Brief Scores: Rajasthan Royals 127/4 in 15.3 overs (Riyan Parag 54*; Akash Madhwal 3-20) defeated Mumbai Indians 125/9 in 20 overs (Hardik Pandya 34; Trent Boult 3-22, Yuzvendra Chahal 3-11) by 6 wickets.
What comes next?
MI will remain in Mumbai and attempt to make history once more when they play the Delhi Capitals on April 7. RR will play RCB at home on April 6.
