RR vs MI, IPL 2024: Sandeep, Jaiswal shine in Rajasthan Royals win over Mumbai Indians

Sandeep Sharma’s five-wicket haul and Yasswi Jaiswal’s brilliant century helped Rajasthan Royals comfortably beat Mumbai Indians by nine wickets at the Swai Mansingh Stadium on Monday.

Sandeep is back in the starting XI for the first time in almost a month and his playing stats show no signs of rust. The young left-hander had earlier sealed the deal with his first century of the season, his best ever in T20I cricket at 5/18 in his four rounds.

Chasing a target of 179, Jaiswal (104, 60b, 9×4, 7×6) and Jos Buttler helped Royals get off to a flying start in the powerplay. The pair scored 61 points in the first six rounds before heavy rain delayed the match for about 40 minutes.

The break gave Mumbai a chance to get back into the game – veteran leg-spinner Piyush Chawla removed Buttler with a 25-ball 35. However, Jaiswal refused to let the bowlers take the initiative and struggled with the spinners. Captain Sanju Samson.

The two finished the rest of the chase brilliantly — with Jaiswal completing his century as the eventual win brought up a century partnership between the two.

Earlier in the day, Mumbai Indians made another sensational start to the Powerplay, losing Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan in the first few games.

Also Read | Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has spoken in favor of Rohit and Kohli to start the T20 World Cup.

Suryakumar Yadav got off to a positive start but unaware of Samson’s clever field change, Rovman positioned Powell at long-on and the batsman passed and the attempted leg-side flick found him perfectly.

Mohammad Nabi’s counter-attacking cameo was short-lived, handing over to 39-year-old Yuzvendra Chahal whose 200th IPL wicket came with a simple back button.

Tilak Verma and Nehal Wadhera regularly rotated the attack to punish the occasional bad ball in an attempt to post a challenging total.

The pair took Avesh for 19 in the second over and continued the fun against Chahal with 20 in the 16th over, with Tilak completing his 38-ball 50 in the process.

Wadhera lost to Trent Boult, one run short of his fifty, ending a rich partnership of 99 runs. Sandeep came back with three wickets in the last over to restrict Mumbai to a sub-par total.