IPL 2019: Match 27 – MI vs RR – Who Said What

The Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai was a witness to a humdinger of a contest between the Mumbai Indians (MI) and the Rajasthan Royals (RR). The contest went down to the last over and in the end, it was the Ajinkya Rahane-captained Royals who came out trumps by four wickets. Nevertheless, despite the win, RR remained in the seventh position of the IPL in this edition’s Indian Premier League (IPL).

De Kock shoulders Mumbai

Mumbai were put in to bat first after the visiting team won the toss. However, Rohit Sharma and Co managed to rack up 187 for five in 20 overs. The skipper and Quinton de Kock took their team off to a brilliant start courtesy of a 96-run partnership in 10.5 overs. Jofra Archer broke the stand, dismissing Sharma, who scored 47 from 32 with six fours and a six. Suryakumar Yadav fell prey to Dhawal Kulkarni.

Kieron Pollard tried hard and was dismissed for six off 12 balls. At the other end, De Kock got to his half-century in 34 balls. The keeper-batsman notched 81 from 52 and got out in the penultimate over of Mumbai’s innings. Jaydev Unadkat picked up the fifth wicket of Ishan Kishan. However, Hardik Pandya played some jaw-dropping strokes and blasted to 28 off 11 balls with one four and three sixes.

Royals crawl to victory

Ajinkya Rahane and Jos Buttler took no time in playing their strokes. The duo cobbled together a partnership of 60 runs off 38 balls to set the platform. Krunal Pandya struck first blood, getting rid of Rahane, who got 37 from 21 with six fours and one over-boundary. Nonetheless, it was  Jos Buttler, who did a bulk of the scoring and racked up his half-century in 34 balls to take the Royals close to the target.

The Englishman ended up getting 89 runs from 43 balls to get the required run-rate to a run-a-ball. After his dismissal, Sanju Samson and Steve Smith got the visitors even close with a stand of 33 runs. Thereafter, RR experienced a bit of a stutter as Mumbai didn’t throw in the towel. In the last over, six runs were needed and Shreyas Gopal hit a four off Hardik Pandya to take the Royals to a victory.

Rohit Sharma, the MI captain, said

I think credit goes to RR, they played well. Put us under pressure with the bat, Jos played an exceptional knock. We tried everything, but things didn’t work out well. Without dew, 175+ is a good score, I thought we had a decent score to defend. We failed to take early wickets and on a track like Wankhede, it always becomes tough. It’s a good headache to have such players in the squad. Lasith has been a match-winner for us, Alzarri has bowled well, it wasn’t just his day. Buttler played him well and even the yorkers were converted into runs, one of those days where things didn’t go well as planned.

Ajinkya Rahane, the RR captain, said

Feels good but not really happy the way we played. Should learn from the mistakes. 30 balls, 30 needed, should’ve won it easily. No stress but games are going so close, especially in this IPL. We believed in Shreyas Gopal and KG. Jos was magnificent. Got to win almost every game now. It’s about one game at a time. We were in a similar situation last year also. Personally enjoy playing at the Wankhede, really good wicket.

Jos Buttler, the Player of the Match, said

Obviously, a great place to come and play cricket. Last couple of overs were twitchy but we needed the win. Great to contribute to the team. I’m playing the best cricket I’ve played for a long period of time. That’s why I was disappointed to get out when I did. We’ve seen in this tournament, when you give teams a bit of a sniff, they can come back. Bit nervous without gloves on, but I’ve always enjoyed fielding as well. Will take a lot of confidence from the win. Coming here and beating Mumbai is a tough task.

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