Talented teenager Yashasvi Jaiswal’s first century (124) was in vain as Mumbai Indians defeated Rajasthan Royals by six wickets in the Indian Premier League on Sunday. Tim David hit three consecutive sixes in the penultimate over.
After deciding to bat, the 21-year-old Jaiswal hammered 124 off only 62 balls at a strike rate of 200 to lead the Royals to 212 for 7 by himself. His innings included 16 boundaries and 8 maximums.
With key contributions from Cameron Green (44) and Suryakumar Yadav (55 off 29 balls) in the middle, Mumbai Indians made a comeback. David and Tilak Varma (29 not out) then put an end to the game as the home team completed the goal with three balls remaining.
As MI reached 214 for 4 in 19.3 overs to give captain Rohit Sharma a birthday present, David smashed three consecutive sixes off the first three deliveries of the final over bowled by Jason Holder.
David scored 45 runs off just 14 balls while hitting two fours and five sixes overall. To defeat the Royals, he and Varma put up 62 runs in only 23 balls for the unbeaten fifth wicket.
When Rohit (3), who turned 36 on Sunday, was cleaned up, Sandeep Sharma gave the Royals the perfect start. However, the duo of Kishan and Green led the recovery, bringing the hosts to 58/1 in the powerplay.
Green and Kishan scored 62 runs together for the second wicket until Kishan was killed by Ravichandran Ashwin’s (4-0-27-2) 28-run attack.
MI needed a Suryakumar miracle, so the batsman started out strong with three fours off Holder and an amazing six off Ashwin over fine leg on the first ball he faced as MI reached 98 for 2 at the midway point.
However, Ashwin struck once more to dismiss Green for a 26-ball 44, catching him at deep midwicket.
Suryakumar turned his attention to RR impact sub Kuldeep Sen after the spin pair of Yuzvendra Chahal and Ashwin prevented MI from keeping up with the asking rate. Suryakumar hammered the seamer for three fours and a six to score 18 runs off just four balls.
But thanks to Sandeep’s superb fielding, Suryakumar’s frenzied innings came to an end. The batsman attempted to lift a short ball outside off from Boult over short fine leg, but Sandeep continued to move forward while keeping his eyes glued to the ball, making a superb grab with a forward dive.
Prior to that, Jaiswal scored an incredible first century (124) to lead Rajasthan Royals to a commanding 212 for 7 in the IPL’s 1000th game.
Local youngster Jaiswal single-handedly propelled Rajasthan Royals to the large score by smashing 16 fours and 8 sixes in only 62 balls, while Mumbai Indians let up their third straight total in excess of 200 this season.
Jaiswal, who increased his total above 400 runs and now has the most runs scored in this IPL, had a particular fondness for Riley Meredith (4-0-51-1), hitting half of his fours and a six against the Australian pacer.
Jaiswal made sure the run rate didn’t fall even if the other Royals hitters couldn’t help out at the other end. His knock got off to a strong start with Jos Buttler (18) and a 72-run opening partnership.
Buttler struck on his ninth ball, and in the opening few of overs, Jaiswal blasted sixes off of both Cameron Green (3-0-31-0) and Jofra Archer (4-0-41-1), giving RR the advantage.
In only five overs, the left-handed Jaiswal struck four fours off of Meredith to help RR reach 50 runs, and they ended the powerplay with a solid 65 without losing.
After recently undergoing minor surgery on his right elbow in Belgium, MI pacer Archer achieved 149.3 kmph early in the match as he seemed to be catching his stride in the third game of the season.
Although Archer struggled with line in his first spell (2-0-21-0), he used the short ball to dismiss Jason Holder (11) and the left-handed batters for RR.
After a strong first over from seasoned spinner Piyush Chawla, the opening partnership was broken in the eighth over when Buttler was caught at long-on.
Sanju Samson (14), the captain of the Royals, started the game with a first-ball six but only stayed in the middle for a brief time before chipping one off Arshad Khan (3-0-39-3) in the tenth over straight to deep midwicket.
Before the game began, the BCCI celebrated the 1,000th IPL match by having its secretary Jay Shah present mementos to the two captains, Rohit Sharma and Samson, as well as to head coach of the Royals Kumar Sangakkara and legendary player of the MI team Sachin Tendulkar.
Rohit, who took over as the captain of the five-time champion Mumbai Indians in April 2013, also finished his 150th game in that capacity.