Mumbai Indians thrashed Rajasthan Royals and improved their net run rate significantly. They need to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad in their last match and hope Rajasthan Royals beat Kolkata Knight Riders. Rajasthan Royals' net run rate, on the other hand, took a major hit, and now it is almost impossible for them to qualify even if they beat Kolkata Knight Riders in their last match.
Both teams made a few interesting changes. Mumbai dropped Quinton de Kock and Krunal Pandya to bring in Ishan Kishan and Jimmy Neesham, who played his second match of the season. Rajasthan Royals got Shreyas Gopal and Kuldip Yadav for Mayank Markande and Akash Singh.
Asked to bat, Rajasthan openers Evin Lewis and Yashasvi Jaiswal added 27 in four overs. Nathan Coulter-Nile provided the first breakthrough, having Jaiswal caught behind. Lewis continued to play his shots but Jasprit Bumrah pinned him in front of the wicket in the sixth over, and even DRS could not save him. Then Neesham provided the biggest blow, picking up Sanju Samson with his first ball as Jayant Yadav held a good catch at the point.
From this stage, the Rajasthan Royals innings was completely derailed. By the end of 10th over, they were already five down for just 50 as Neesham and Coulter-Nile added a wicket each to their tally. David Miller and Rahul Tewatia stopped the fall for a while, but they took 32 balls to add 21.
Tewatia became the third wicket of Neesham, who finished with 4-0-12-3. Coulter-Nile dismissed Miller and Chetan Sakariya to finish with 4-0-14-4, his best ever IPL figures, while Bumrah had 4-0-14-2. A last-over six by Mustafizur Rahman took the Rajasthan Royals total to 90/9 which was never going to be enough to defend.
Rohit Sharma started with a four and six in the first over, and hit another six before he was dismissed for a 13-ball 22. Kishan, opening the innings in his comeback match, grabbed the opportunity by both hands and slammed 50 not out in 25 balls. He started cautiously, scoring just 8 runs off the first 9 balls he faced. Then two fours in debutant Kuldip’s first over got him going, and he looked much more at ease in the rest of his innings.
Suryakumar Yadav Looked in good touch and raced to 13 with three fours before skying a cutter from Mustafizur. Kishan grew in confidence, and his last four scoring shots were 6, 6, 1, 4. Mumbai Indians completed the chase in 8.1 overs. With this rapid win, their NRR improved considerably and now they have a very good chance to qualify for the Playoffs.
Brief scores: Rajasthan Royals 90/9 in 20 overs (Lewis 24; Coulter-Nile 4-14) lost to Mumbai Indians 94/2 in 8.2 overs (Kishan 50*; Mustafizur 1-32) by 8 wickets with 70 balls to spare. Player of the Match: Nathan Coulter-Nile.