Jos Buttler slams ton as Rajasthan Royals beat Mumbai Indians

MUMBAI: Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal struck crucial blows in successive overs as Rajasthan Royals won by 23 runs against Mumbai Indians in the ninth match of IPL 2022 at the DY Patil Stadium on Saturday.

After Jos Buttler's 66-ball hundred propelled them to 193/8 in 20 overs, Rajasthan struck hard in the final few overs as Mumbai could manage only 170/8. Fifties from Ishan Kishan and Tilak Varma were not sufficient to deny the 2008 IPL champions their second successive win of the season.

Just like Rajasthan, Mumbai lost captain Rohit Sharma and Anmolpreet Singh cheaply in the power-play. But Kishan, who got an unbeaten 81 against Delhi Capitals, began from where he left off. After getting Mumbai off the mark with a smash through cover off Trent Boult, Kishan hit Navdeep Saini with a pulled six over fine leg, followed by a loft over mid-off on a no-ball and hitting the next ball through the same region.

Though Kishan slowed down after the power-play, Varma stepped up to be the aggressor. Varma began by pulling Ashwin between short fine leg and deep backward square leg. The standout shot from the youngster's innings was his sweetly-timed loft down the ground off Saini. Varma's impressive show continued when he ran down the pitch and tonked Chahal over deep mid-wicket for six followed by a four swept through fine leg.

Kishan earned a reprieve at 41 when Yashasvi Jaiswal ran across and timed his dive well to take the catch at deep mid-wicket. But as soon as his elbows landed on the ground, the ball popped out of his hands. After bringing up his fifty with a straight drive off Boult' Kishan's knock ended at 54 as Saini took a screamer at deep square leg but his head hit the ground hard and left the field immediately, ending the 81-run partnership off 54 balls for the third wicket. In his final over, Chahal trapped Tim David lbw with a ripping leg-break and took out Daniel Sams by tempting him to hole out to deep mid-wicket. The leg-spinner missed his hat-trick as Karun Nair spilled a catch at slip.

With 29 needed off the final over, Pollard crunched a four through extra cover off Saini. But the pacer kept calm to bowl four dot balls and got the big-hitter out on the final ball as Buttler fittingly took the catch at deep extra cover.

Earlier, with Buttler's onslaught, where his first fifty came off 32 balls and the next off 34 balls, Rajasthan were expected to touch 200. But some excellent death bowling from Jasprit Bumrah and Tymal Mills in the last two overs meant Mumbai prevented them from finishing the innings on a high.

Brief scores: Rajasthan Royals 193/8 in 20 overs (Buttler 100, Hetmyer 35; Bumrah 3/17, Tymal Mills 3/35) beat Mumbai Indians 170/8 in 20 overs (Tilak Varma 61, Ishan Kishan 54; Yuzvendra Chahal 2/26, Navdeep Saini 2/36). IANS

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