Rajasthan Royals still keep their hopes alive in IPL 2020 after a terrific win against Mumbai Indians. Chasing a total of 196 Steve Smith and his men were up against it.
It got worse for Royals when they lost Robin Uthappa and their skipper, Smith, early in the chase. Then Ben Stokes and Sanju Samson stitched together an unbelievable Partnership. Stokes finally was at his best and scored all around the ground against MI bowlers. He paced his knock beautifully and played a chanceless inning.
Rajasthan Royals Win By 8 Wickets
His confidence rubbed onto Samson who himself played some eye-catching strokes. The likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult had no answers against the two and it proved to be a memorable run chase by RR.
In the end, the day belonged to Stokes who notched up his second IPL century. The Englishman silenced his critics and came roaring back into form. Stokes remained unbeaten 107 runs with 14 boundaries and 3 sixes and led the charge for his side in an exceptional triumph. Samson too other end scored a match-winning half-century.
We Want To Take Momentum Into The Next 2 Games- Steve Smith
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Earlier in the match, it was a Hardik Pandya show who took MI to an outstanding total. The hard-hitting batsman scored 60 from just 21 balls. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be as Stokes outperformed him in the second half and took his team to a much-needed win.
Here’s what the winning skipper Steve Smith said in the post-match presentation.
“Very pleased. That’s what we’ve been crying out for, two of our experienced players to take it deep and the way they played, very pleased. I think the wicket was playing good today, the ball was coming on nicely. I think Stokes’ intent from the first ball – he got into a nice groove tonight. They just played good cricket shots to keep the rate in check. We did a lot of things right, taking wickets in the middle, but the dropped catch was pretty costly in the middle”.
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“Great hitting from Hardik, probably didn’t get our plans right either. I just hope our batters from tonight can take a bit of confidence and momentum into the next two games. It’s what we’ve lacked, out experienced batters getting winning scores”, said Smith after the crucial win.
