In the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 Match 14, Rajasthan Royals defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets with 27 balls remaining at the Wankhede Stadium in this city on Monday. Pacer Trent Boult struck like lightning for a three-fer, Yuzvendra Chahal spun a web to bag 3-11, and Riyan Parag struck his second successive half-century.
After winning the toss and choosing to field first for Rajasthan Royals, Boult of New Zealand took advantage of the ideal conditions, moved the ball on both sides and trapped Rohit Sharma, Naman Dhir, and Dewald Brevis for first-ball ducks, reducing Mumbai Indians to 14/3 in the third over. The 34-year-old Boult finished his quota with 3-22 after taking 3-15 in his three overs.
After that, Yuzvendra Chahal turned into Mumbai Indians’ worst enemy, destroying the middle order while taking 3-11 in four outstanding overs. This allowed Mumbai Indians to reach their second-lowest total against Rajasthan Royals, 125/9 in 20 overs. In 2013, they scored 92 against them.
Rajasthan Royals were struggling at 48/3 in their chase for 126 runs, but Riyan Parag saved them by partnering with Ravichandran Ashwin to score 40 runs off 35 balls, and then he unleashed a barrage of strokes in the latter stages to secure an easy victory. With five fours and three sixes from Parag, who is still undefeated at 54, Rajasthan Royals reached 127/4 in 15.3 overs to win easily and plenty of time to spare.
In a bowlers-dominated game, Parag hit the lone fifty with a cool knock off of 38 balls. He finished the match with a barrage of blows, including a six off Piyush Chawla, two sixes off Gerald Coetzee, and a four off the bat of Gerald Coetzee to secure Rajasthan Royals’ third victory and move them to the top of the IPL table with six points. Mumbai Indians have lost three straight games and are still at the bottom of the league having not yet opened their account.
In the first over, Yashasvi Jaiswal hit the 17-year-old South African bowler Kwena Maphaka for consecutive boundaries off the fourth and fifth deliveries. On the subsequent delivery, though, the youthful South African exacted his retribution by shaping away a full-length delivery outside and Jaiswal threw it straight to Tim David at cover. Maphaka went wicketless for 66 against SRH in Hyderabad before taking his maiden IPL wicket in his second match. RR stood at 10 to 1.
Sanju Samson, the captain, hit a wide delivery from Maphaka through point for a boundary and then got the same outcome from the bowler’s following delivery, which offered even more width. However, he was out quickly after being castled by Akash Madhwal, who attempted a cut without moving his feet as he chopped onto his stumps.
And the Rajasthan Royals were in danger at 48/3 in the 7th over when Jos Buttler, who was bothered by Jasprit Bumrah despite being struck for a boundary, was out for 13. Piyush Chawla caught Buttler as he pulled Akash Madhwal flat and straight to fine leg.
But Parag saved them and saw to it that their winning run was preserved.
Gerald Coetzee was ramped to the boundary by Parag, who then followed it up with another boundary off the subsequent delivery. Setting boundaries with Coetzee and Bumrah enabled him to sustain RR’s hopes. In the fourteenth over, they scored 100/4.
After slogging Piyush Chawal over cow corner with 25 needed off 36 balls, Parag sliced Coetzee over cover for six more and then pulled over midwicket to clinch his consecutive fifty-score innings in the next over.
With a top-edge off a short pass from Coetzee, which went over the keeper’s head and onto the boundary, he secured the win for the Rajasthan Royals. As he assisted the Rajasthan Royals in their third straight win, Parag maintained his undefeated record at 54.
Earlier, Boult took the first three Mumbai Indian wickets with some sharp pace bowling that shook the team.
Mumbai Indians were struggling at 30/4 at the end of the first five overs on a pitch that was supposed to support the batsmen due to the home crowd’s persistent jeering of captain Hardik Pandya. Trent Boult, a pacer from New Zealand, was the main wrecker, taking three of the four wickets.
When Boult hit a jumbled seam delivery at fullish length around off-stump, Rohit Sharma was out for a first-ball duck. This gave Sanju Samson the outside edge and exposed Rohit’s defence. At that point, the Mumbai Indians were down one wicket after the sixth ball of the first over. With this duck, Rohit Sharma now has a questionable record with Dinesh Karthik, having made 17 in 17 IPL editions.
When Impact Substitute Naman Dhir was stranded lbw on the opening delivery against Boult, it became 1/2. The ball touched down on a length, slid in little, and slipped between the bat and the pad. Dhir reexamined the ruling, but DRS ruled in the bowler’s favour because Hawk-eye believed the ball would have nicked the leg stump.
Ishan Kishan managed to score a single and survive the hat-trick ball, but Boult claimed his third wicket of the Power play and 100th wicket overall when he trapped Dewald Brevis for a first-ball duck, misfiring and holing out to short third man. Boult was on fire, having taken three wickets in four deliveries. As the first Impact Substitute to enter the game in the second over, Brevis left as soon as he could to avoid disturbing the scorer.
After taking four balls to glove a rising delivery across his body past keeper Samson for a four, Ishan Kishan struck a massive six off the first delivery he faced from Nandre Burger over the long-on boundary.
After Kishan had creamed Burger through cover to the boundary, Burger got the last laugh in the fourth over. The South African bowler then returned the favour by sending Kishan back with a ball that sailed away off the deck, giving Samson the upper hand. Ishan Kishan struck two boundaries and one six in his 16 points off of 14 balls. Mumbai Indians were in serious trouble after falling to 20/4 in the fourth over.
Tilak Varma and captain Hardik Pandya, who was jeered before the toss, put up 56 runs for the fifth wicket in an attempt to save the innings.
After hitting three dot balls off Burger in the first over, Pandya walked into the sixth over and crushed the South African pacer over point. On the following delivery, he pounded the cover-point boundary for back-to-back fours. His third four of the sixth over came when he danced down the pitch and smashed it over mid-on to end the over. With 16 runs lost, it was the most costly over for RR to yet.
For a boundary hit against Ravichandran Ashwin, Hardik struck Avesh Khan. The Mumbai Indians captain was forced to hole out to long-on by Chahal, who exacted his retribution. Pandya attempted to deposit the ball into the stands, but Chahal, who had almost dismissed him on the previous delivery in the tenth over due to a whisker-missing delivery, sent down a flattish delivery around the middle and leg. Pandya was out for 32 off 21 balls, hitting six boundaries in all.
The Mumbai Indians were down to 95/7 and in grave trouble when Piyush Chawla was out to Avesh Khan for three and Tilak Varma, who was holding one end up, was out for 32 off 29 balls. The majority of Varma’s runs came from singles and twos. In the fifth over, the pacer miscuted and sent a fullish delivery down the leg, which Varma aided over the boundary.
When the pacer attempted to bounce Avesh Khan, he also hooked him over the fence. However, Chahal had him reaching out for a wide googly, and the batter ballooned an edge to Ashwin at short third-man, just when it appeared that he would hoover up the strike and assist Mumbai Indians to a big score with his scorching drives.
As Mumbai Indians continued to struggle and could only manage a pitiful total, Chahal took Coetzee as his third victim with a magnificent line and length bowl against an uninformed middle-order.
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