A clinical Rajasthan Royals romped home for a third victory on the trot in the Indian Premier League with a six-wicket hammer blow over Mumbai Indians, whose captain Hardik Pandya continued to be on the receiving end of the fans’ ire on Monday. After Yuzvendra Chahal (3/11) and Trent Boult (3/22) combined to suffocate Mumbai Indians with the bat, restricting them to 125/9, Riyan Parag (54 not out) produced another knockout of the top shelf to conquer Rajasthan. Royals to the top spot in the IPL points table. The 22-year-old Parag continued to make great strides this season with a goal display that reflected his maturity and aggression, delivering a number of spectacular strikes while being determined not to give up until his side crossed the line. Parag’s knock was studded with five fours and three sixes as Royals reached 127/4 after 15.3 overs and won with 27 balls to spare.
Meanwhile, there was no let-up for Pandya, who was booed several times in Mumbai Indians’ first home match. It started with Pandya being booed when he entered the field for warm-up drills and fans hitting the player again hard when he came out for the toss.
Although commentator and former India and Mumbai player Sanjay Manjrekar appealed to the crowd to behave, the boos continued until Pandya hit a pair of fours to make the Mumbai fans smile again after their side faced 20/4 in the powerplay it was staggering.
Pandya top-scored with 34 for Mumbai in his attempt to turn the brickbats into cheers, but Rajasthan came out on top at every juncture of the match, which was underlined by special bowling efforts from both Chahal, Boult and Nandre Burger (2/32). ), all of which were supported by excellent fieldwork.
Boult struck early with a three-wicket burst in the powerplay and Chahal made life miserable for the rest of the batters in the next overs, putting up brilliant figures of 3/11 in four overs, accounting for Pandya, Tilak Varma (32) and Gerald Coetzee (4).
If Chahal suffocated the MI batters in the middle overs while stopping both Pandya and Varma, it was Boult who ran riot in the home side’s top order, dismissing Rohit Sharma, Naman Dhir and Dewald Brevis before the first ball.
The tone was set in the first over himself with Boult rocking Mumbai Indians twice, including Rohit’s expensive scalp for a golden duck.
Looking for the feel of the ball on his bat, this perhaps prompted Rohit to go for a ball that was dismissed by Boult, and an outside edge was sniffed beautifully by Rajasthan’ keeper-skipper Sanju Samson.
Dhir (0) was guilty of running over the wickets and failing to cover Boult’s inswing, with the ball crashing into his pads. A DRS call was ultimately burned as tracking of the ball showed it would have clipped the leg stump.
The situation in Mumbai worsened when impact player Brevis (0) played one meek to short third on another delivery that deflected away from the right-hander off Boult in the third over, with Nandre Burger (2/32) taking a sharp reverse cupped catch.
Pandya, who was booed from all sides here, walked to a similar reception, but a brief backlash from him turned the negative noise into cheers.
The Mumbai skipper showed intent when he hit three fours off Burger in the sixth over but it was Chahal who ended Pandya’s resistance.
Chahal bowled one outside off stump to prompt Pandya to have a go, and the batsman obliged with a big swing of the bat, but the ball didn’t travel far enough.
The substitute Rovman Powell read the height and speed well to cover a few meters to his right and take a nice diving catch, denying Pandya the chance to be a hero for his side.
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