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IPL: Dominant Mumbai Indians thrash Rajasthan Royals

Last updated on: April 29, 2021 19:49 IST

IMAGE: Mumbai Indians's Kieron Pollard and Quinton de Kock celebrate after victory over Rajasthan Royals in the IPL match in Delhi on Thursday. Photograph: BCCI

Opener Quinton de Kock slammed an unbeaten half-century as Mumbai Indians thrashed Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets in the IPL match, in Delhi, on Thursday.

De Kock scored a breezy 70 from 50 balls, hitting six fours and two sixes, as Mumbai Indians easily chased down 172 with nine balls to spare.

 

The South African wicketkeeper-batsman took the game away from Royals, adding 63 runs for the third wicket with Krunal Pandya, who stroked a quickfire 39 from 26 balls.

Captain Rohit Sharma struggled to 14 from 17 balls before he was caught at  mid-on off Chris Morris, who also accounted for the wicket of Suryakumar Yadav for 16.

Quinton de Kock

IMAGE: Quinton de Kock hits a six. Photograph: BCCI

Mumbai Indians registered their third win in six games to stay fourth in the points' table, while Rajasthan are placed seventh with just two wins from six games.

Earlier, skipper Sanju Samson blazed his way to 42 off 27 balls before Mumbai's pacers bowled a good spell in the death overs to restrict Rajasthan Royals to 171/4.

Put in to bat, Rajasthan openers Jos Buttler (41 off 32) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (32 off 20) laid the foundation with a 66-run stand in 7.4 overs.

Buttler started with a first-ball boundary, hitting Trent Boult for a four on the leg side, while Jaiswal hit the same bowler for his first four as Royals cut loose after a cautious start.

Buttler, who got a lifeline when he was dropped by Rahul Chahar running back at point, upped the tempo in the Powerplay. He took on off-spinner Jayant Yadav, pulling him for a six and four over midwicket, in the fifth over.

Jaiswal too changed gears and struck Nathan Coulter-Nile for a four and a maximum off successive deliveries as Rajasthan collected 14 runs from the sixth over to race to 47-0 after the Powerplay.

Buttler looked to get back among the runs as he smashed Jayant for another six in the seventh over.

The Rajasthan opener hit another maximum, this time off Rahul Chahar, but the leggie got revenge off the next ball, having him stumped by de Kock.

Trent Boult

IMAGE: Mumbai Indians pacer Trent Boult celebrates after taking the wicket of Sanju Samson. Photograph: BCCI

Samson, started with a boundary, a cut-shot and then hit two boundaries off Krunal Pandya in ninth over, in which Royals got 12 runs.

Leggie Chahar struck again as Jaiswal was caught and bowled off a leading edge.

Shivam Dube struggled to lift the tempo as he made 35 from 31 balls, while Samson kept the boundaries coming from the other end in the middle overs.

But Mumbai's pacers did a splendid job in the last few overs.

Boult cleaned up Samson with a cracking yorker in the 18th over and Bumrah dismissed Dube in the penultimate over.

Royals managed just 45 runs in the last five overs, while losing two wickets, with Bumrah giving away just two runs in his last two overs -- the 17th and 19th over of the innings. He claimed 1/15 in four overs, including 12 dot balls, while Chahar took 2/33.