Having lost their last two matches, the Rajasthan Royals were looking to get back to winning ways as they faced the Mumbai Indians in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
The toss went the way of Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma, who elected to bat first.
Opener Quinton de Kock, who had found form against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in Sharjah with a knock of 67, showed some of that talent against Rajasthan too, guiding the very first ball of the match to the boundary.
Steve Smith used as many as five bowlers in the powerplay but de Kock and Rohit Sharma seemed unfazed as they kept the scoreboard ticking over, taking a particular liking to Ankit Rajpoot and not sparing even the lightning quick Jofra Archer.
It took the 19-year-old debutant Kartik Tyagi to break the partnership. The youngster bounced out de Kock for 23 in the 5th over.
Skipper Sharma managed to hit a healthy 35 off 23 balls before Shreyas Gopal had him caught at long-on in the 10th over.
The very next ball saw Gopal sending Ishan Kishan packing for a duck and Mumai were suddenly 88/3 in the 10th over.
Krunal Pandya, who was promoted ahead of his brother Hardik, struggled to reach 12 off 17 balls before Archer dismissed him in the 14th over.
Mumbai seemed like they were headed for a below-par total and all hopes were now pinned on Suryakumar Yadav, who made a slow start but seemed to get his act together as wickets fell rapidly at the other end.
Yadav ended up making 79 off 47 balls to notch up his highest ever score in the IPL.
His innings, together with a quickfire 30 off 19 balls by Hardik Pandya, ensured that Mumbai finished strongly taking 68 runs from their last five overs and posting a very defendable 193/4.
Rajasthan Royals had the worst possible start to the chase. Trent Boult and James Pattinson ensured that they had Yashasvi Jaiswal, Steve Smith and Sanju Samson all back in the pavilion before the 3rd over was finished.
Jaiswal went first, out for a duck to Boult.
Smith was the next to fall. Having looked out of sorts in the last couple of matches, he swung wildly yet again as he faced Bumrah, who opened the bowling for the first time this season, and was dismissed for 6.
Boult then delivered yet another wicket in his second over – a top edge from Samson falling safely into Rohit’s hands. Rajasthan reeling at 12/3 in 2.5 overs.
The lone man standing in the Rajasthan innings was Jos Buttler. The opener stayed calm as Mumbai’s bowlers wreaked havoc around him, playing himself in slowly to reach a run-a-ball 24.
Once the slower bowlers came on, and as Rajasthan kept losing wickets, Buttler exploded.
He took 49 off 24 balls from Krunal, Rahul Chahar and Kieron Pollard and eventually raced to 70 off 44 balls giving Rajasthan hopes of some kind of a comeback.
A fabulous catch by Pollard at the long-on boundary however brought down the shutters on Buttler’s innings in the 14th over and from then it was all downhill for the Royals.
Rajasthan lost their last five wickets for 38 runs. The fact that the next highest scorer after Buttler was Archer with 24 told the story of the night for the Royals.
Mumbai won by 57 runs and displaced the Delhi Capitals from the top of the table, even though they have played one more game.
Rajasthan lost their third game in a row and to rub salt into their wounds, skipper Smith was fined INR 12 lakh for slow over-rate.
Suryakumar Yadav was named Man of the Match.
