Mumbai Indians secured a commanding 100-run victory over Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Thursday, with captain Hardik Pandya becoming only the third MI skipper to achieve this feat at RR’s home ground. The win featured outstanding performances from the top-order batters and bowlers Trent Boult and Karn Sharma, who each claimed three wickets.
Pandya’s unbeaten 48 off 23 balls contributed to MI’s impressive total of 217/2 in the first innings. The team’s bowling attack then dismantled RR, bowling them out for just 117 runs in 16.1 overs.
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This victory marks a significant milestone as only two previous MI captains, Harbhajan Singh in 2012 and Sachin Tendulkar in 2010, had managed to defeat RR in Jaipur. Since then, MI did win away to Royals but those wins Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad (in 2014) and DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai (in 2022). As far as Jaipur is concerned, RR had stitched five straight wins over MI at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium before the emphatic loss on Thursday evening.
MI skipper Pandya showcased his all-round abilities by taking the wicket of Shubham Dubey in his sole over.
“Everyone is very clear and we are going back to simple cricket, it is working for us and hopefully it continues. We want to be humble, very disciplined and keep focusing. We could have got another 15 runs. What we were trying to speak to each other was to play percentage shots. Surya and I said there’s value for shots… Ro (Rohit) and Ryan batted the same way. I think it was absolutely fantastic. It is never about people getting chances; it’s about what is required in the situation. People are going back to batsmanship. As a group, the way we batted was proper batsmanship,” Pandya said at the post-match presentation.
“We have to give credit to the way MI played. The way they batted, took the game a little deep, kept the 10 runs per over consistency, and accelerated in the end. As far as our batting is concerned, it wasn’t our day,” RR skipper Riyan Parag acknowledged.
The victory extends Mumbai Indians’ winning streak to six matches in the tournament. Despite losing four of their first five games, they have now climbed to the top of the points table.
