Who won yesterday's (April 22) IPL match? Rajasthan Royals (RR) welcomed Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Sawai Mansingh Indoor Stadium in match 38 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. (As It Happened | Scorecard)
MI captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and elected to bat first. In-form opener Rohit Sharma was dismissed in the very first over of the match by New Zealand pacer Trent Boult. Ishan Kishan followed suit with a third-ball duck, caught behind off Sandeep Sharma. Star batter Suryakumar Yadav too fell cheaply (10 off 8 balls) as Mumbai were three down with just 20 runs on the board.
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RR's ace leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal then induced a false shot from Afghan batter Mohammad Nabi (23 off 17) for a caught-and-bowled, that gave Chahal his record 200th IPL wicket. MI were in a spot of bother at 52 for 4 after 7.3 overs.
Tilak Varma started a resurrection for the visitors, combining with Nehal Wadhera for a 99-run partnership off just 52 balls to take MI past the 150-run mark. Boult broke the stand with a wide slow bouncer to Wadhera (49 off 24), that the southpaw could only slice to short third.
Pandya came in and scored a run-a-ball 10 before he was trapped in front by Avesh Khan. Varma was dismissed in the final over of the innings, while in the pursuit of a late flourish. He ended with 65 runs off 45 balls.
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Tim David (3 off 5) couldn't do much and Gerald Coetzee fell for a first-ball duck as MI ended with a total of 179/9 in their 20 overs. Sandeep Sharma was the pick of the RR bowlers, and grabbed the first five-wicket haul of this season.
In reply, RR began the chase efficiently. Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal returned to IPL form with a fantastic 59-ball century, ending not out at 104 off 60 balls. His opening partner Jos Buttler made 35 off 25 balls, while skipper Sanju Samson remained undefeated at 38 runs off 28 balls.
The Royals sealed a comfortable win, getting past the target in just 18.4 overs and losing only one wicket in the process. This ensured that RR ended the Jaipur leg of their campaign this season with a win.
While Jaiswal hit nine fours and six sixes en route his dazzling century, he did not get the Player of the Match award. The prize went to Sandeep Sharma for his 5/18, the best figures of IPL 2024 so far.
Brief Scores: MI 179/9 in 20 overs (Tilak Varma 65, Nehal Wadhera 49; Sandeep Sharma 5/18) lost to RR 183/1 in 18.4 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 104 not out, Sanju Samson 38 not out; Piyush Chawla 1/33) by nine wickets.
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Points Table Update
With their seventh win in eight matches, RR cemented their pole position in the IPL 2024 points table. Sanju Samson and Co now have 14 points from 8 matches.
Meanwhile, MI are languishing in seventh place with six points from eight games, and need a turnaround to make the play-offs cut.
