Rajasthan Royals lost to Mumbai Indians by 57 runs in match 20 of IPL 2020 in Abu Dhabi. This is the first time in five years that Mumbai beat Rajasthan in the IPL. They last won against the Royals back in 2015. Meanwhile, this was the third straight loss for Steve Smith’s men as Mumbai strengthen their hold at the top of the points table. They top the points table with four wins from six games with eight points. More about the RR vs MI match report in detail below.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and chose to bat first in Abu Dhabi. Rohit Sharma (35) and Quinton de Kock added 49 for the first wicket before De Kock was dismissed by Karthik Tyagi, who made his IPL debut in the game. Suryakumar Yadav (79*) then walked out to bat and took the Mumbai scoreboard forward with Rohit.
Shreyas Gopal then accounted for Rohit and Ishan Kishan’s wicket in the 10 over of the Mumbai innings to peg them back from 49 for 1 to 88 for 3. In the death overs, Hardik Pandya (30*) joined hands with well set Yadav and scored 50 in the last three overs to help Mumbai finish with 193 on the board.
Also Read – IPL 2020: We Have A Lot Of Quality And It’s About Getting The Job Done- Rohit Sharma
Rajasthan Royals Lose to Mumbai Indians After 5 Years
The chase was always going to be tough and so it proved for the Royals. The Mumbai Indians bowlers took three wickets inside the powerplay, to take the sting out of the Rajasthan chase. Steve Smith (6) and Sanju Samson (0) scored in single figures in a chase of 194. At the end, it was a lone battle from Jos Buttler who scored 70 off 44 balls as he ran out of partners at the other end.
Once he was out, the Mumbai bowlers cleaned up the Rajasthan tailenders as they were bowled out for 136 inside 18.1 overs. The loss has opened up major concerns for the Royals who seem to be lacking the proper gameplan coming into their games outside Sharjah. They missed star all-rounder Ben Stokes in this match, who will be under mandatory quarantine till October 10.
What Was the Turning Point in the Game?
Losing three wickets inside the powerplay and losing Jos Buttler in the crucial phase of the chase proved to be the turning point in the game for the Royals. Once Buttler was dismissed, the chase was always a tall order for the Royals tailenders.
Suryakumar Yadav for his unbeaten 79 was awarded the Man of the Match.
“This time I just wanted to bat till the end. Loving the added responsibility at the top of the order, and I’ve just been told to play my game and express myself and I did just that. The lockdown helped me with my off-side game rather than just my leg-side pick-up shot. The team winning is really satisfying” said Yadav.
Both Royals (October 9) and Mumbai Indians (October 11) face Delhi Capitals in their next game.
Also Read: IPL 2020: We Have To Work On Our Batting And Come Back Hard – Steve Smith
