Mumbai Indians (MI) with a score of 161 runs for the loss of 5 wickets defeated the Rajasthan Royals (RR), who had made a score of 158 runs for the loss of 6 wickets.
In the IPL2022 from the nine games played, the MI team has won the 1st game and that too, against the RR team. This is a big boost for them.
The MI team started off poorly. Jasprit Bumrah who had managed to dismiss Buttler 4 times in 8 innings, missed this 5th opportunity.
Tim Dravid, on the other hand, messed up an offering that was straightforward.
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Entry of Kartikeya and Shokeen
Kumar Kartikeya, the ‘left-arm’ spinner and Hrithik Shokeen, the offspinner, are the new entrants to the ‘uncapped’ club. This is only the 3rd game for Shokeen. He seems to be a ‘thinking’ bowler who is not affected by the batters who look to hit him. This getting rid of the so called fear works out to winning half the battle. He managed to deceive Paddikal in flight.
After Shokeen, Kartik came in to show his talent. Besides other tricks, Kartikeya has a ‘deceptive’ carom ball. He tends to impress with accuracy and control. He managed to deliver 3 straight over’s in which he conceded a single boundary and also got the wicket of Sanju Samson. The shot was ‘break-free’ and led to be a simple catch.
Buttler Tees off
The loss of Samson and managing to play disciplined spinners forcing the RR to recalibrate meant that Buttler was striking at less than hundred for most of his knock. Between the 9.1 and 14.4 over’s, in 32 balls the RR team were not able to make any boundary.
Buttler was on 43 runs in 46 over’s with 6 over’s left. He managed to hit Shokeen for a 6,6,6,6 sequence; the ball was bowled cleverly from ‘around’ the stumps which were far from his ‘hitting’ arc. After which he got out making 67 runs in 52 balls. Riyan Parag also fell quickly. The RR team now depended on the batters of the lower order to finish. Ashwin managed to finish the innings with 21 runs in 8 balls and the RR team posted 158 runs.
Kishan and Rohit
Though Kishan managed an ‘upper-cut’ six but was a victim to aggression. Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav managed to keep the score moving upward. Suryakumar managed to pick boundaries every time he felt there was pressure on the batters. When he raised his 50, the MI required 46 runs from 36 balls.
Sams, David seal the game
Both the players, Varma and Suryakumar fell when they were looking to hit. David got lucky and could bring out his ‘big-hitting’ game. Things seem to get a little ‘out-of-hand’ when Pollard fell with the MI needing 4 out of 5. Sams managed to biff the very first ball into the stands. This sealed the win of the MI team with 4 balls to spare.
