Sherfane, Dhir cameos in vain as Rajasthan Royals flog Mumbai Indians

Yashasvi Jaiswal’s ebullient 32-ball 77*, comprising10 fours and 4 sixes, and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s gung-ho 14-ball 39, laced with a boundary and five maximums, set up Rajasthan Royals’ comfortable 27-run win over Mumbai Indians in a rain-hit encounter in Guwahati.

Mumbai Indians missed their lengths in the first three overs after winning the toss and opting to bowl at the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati. Both Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi lined up the bowlers to have great fun. 22 runs came each off Deepak Chahar and Trent Boult’s overs. Even Jasprit Bumrah was taken for 14. Hardik bowled a great 4-run over to spark an Indians resurgence but there was none stopping the carnage. Apart from three overs, all the other overs went for double digits.

Jaiswal loves playing against Mumbai Indians. Both his IPL hundreds have come against this franchise and if he faced 10 more balls he would have had his third tonight, without a hint of hyperbole. The southpaw batted with great clarity and hit the ball so cleanly. This game is in Rajasthan Royals’ bag already as they set out to chase a mountain of a target. It won’t be easy and the five-time champions need a miracle to pull it off. We did see the ball hit the bottom of the bat quite often as the innings progressed. Mumbai Indians will hope it comes on nicely at least with the new ball considering they need to go at the rate of knots from ball one.

The onus was on Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickleton, a left-right opening combination, to get the five-time champions off to a flying start in their pursuit of 151. Albeit they both failed to fire, losing their wickets to Sandeep Sharma and Jofra Archer respectively. While the Indian dasher was rapped on the pads by the wily medium-pacer, Rickelton looked to bosh a ball across the line only to offer a skier to Dhruv Jurel.

Suryakumar Yadav walked in at one drop and paddled the flattest of sixes down to the fine leg fence. However, the South African left-arm is not one to be fazed easily. He struck back almost immediately with a change of pace that deceives Suryakumar, who swiped the length on middle and leg straight to Jofra Archer at deep backward square leg. Mumbai Indians are in tatters in a tall chase, having lost three quick wickets.

Wickets have continued tumbling at the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati as Mumbai Indians use their impact sub – Sherfane Rutherford comes in for AM Ghazanfar. Before his arrival at the crease, Ravi Bishnoi’s leg spin swallowed both Hardik Pandya and Tilak Varma in an over, leaving Mumbai Indians in a horrible position. With Sherfane having dealt some lusty blows, it came down to 57 off 18 balls as Naman Dhir struck two fours off Nandre Burger, but the South African had the last laugh. Mumbai Indians needed 44 off the last two overs but didn’t come anywhere close to the finish line as Sandeep and Archer wrapped it up with quiet overs.

Brief scores: Rajasthan Royals 150/3 in 11 overs [Yashasvi Jaiswal 77* (32), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 39 (14); AM Ghazanfar 2-21] beat Mumbai Indians 123/9 in 11 overs [Sherfane Rutherford 25 (8), Naman Dhir 25 (13); Sandeep Sharma 2-26] by 27 runs.

What next for the teams?

Rajasthan Royals stay back in Guwahati for their final home game at this venue, against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on April 10. Mumbai Indians head back home to play against the defending champions on April 12 at the Wankhede stadium.