De Kock, Bumrah, Boult shine as Mumbai Indians beats Rajasthan Royals

Quinton de Kock's unbeaten 50-ball 70 coupled with superlative bowling from Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult catapulted Mumbai Indians to a seven-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals.

Quinton de Kock returned to form with a match-winning 70 against Rajasthan Royals.

Quinton de Kock made his first sizeable contribution with the bat and Krunal Pandya made the most of a promotion in the batting order to help Mumbai Indians overhaul a target of 172 set by Rajasthan Royals in Delhi on Thursday.

The duo ensured that the superlative work done by the pace combination of Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult didn’t go to waste, as MI chased down the target with nine balls to spare.

The Royals’ total was slightly below par but dicey nevertheless. De Kock, who tallied just 47 runs in four outings before this game, ensured he took his time before getting stuck into the left-arm pace trio of the Royals.

 

With Rohit Sharma struggling to time the ball sweetly at the Kotla, it didn’t come as a surprise that the MI captain offered a simple chance to Chetan Sakariya at mid-on in Chris Morris’ first over.

But de Kock, who had gone after Mustafizur Rahman two overs earlier, took charge thereon, finding gaps for fours at will through the middle overs. Once Suryakumar Yadav flicked Morris straight to midwicket in the 10th over, Krunal was promoted with Ishan Kishan having made way for Nathan Coulter-Nile’s pace.

 

The left-handers ensured the asking rate never got close to the two-digit mark during their 63-run partnership, with Krunal taking on Rahul Tewatia’s spin. With de Kock at his seamless best, Krunal tried to finish the game in a hurry. Even though he perished in the 17th over, with 26 runs remaining, Kieron Pollard completed the formalities without any fuss.

Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal gave Rajasthan Royals a fine start against Mumbai Indians.

 

 

Earlier in the afternoon, Bumrah and Boult, along with young leggie Rahul Chahar, kept the Royals in check. Such was the accuracy of Bumrah and Boult that the Royals could neither get off the blocks in a hurry nor end with a flurry.

While Boult and Bumrah conceded just 20 runs in the first four overs, the duo conceded a meagre 19 runs combined in the three overs starting with the 17th, with Boult dismantling Sanju Samson’s woodwork courtesy a perfect yorker.

In between, despite Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal cutting loose after surviving the initial burst, Chahar got rid of both the openers in the middle overs before the MI support bowlers stifled Shivam Dube in the middle.