Mumbai Indians took on Rajasthan Royals at Match 24 of IPL 2021 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.
Quinton de Kock’s unbeaten 70 (off 50 balls) and some brilliant bowling from Jasprit Bumrah in the death overs helped MI beat the Royals by seven wickets.
MI won the toss and opted to field first.
Openers Buttler (41 runs off 32) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (32 off 20 balls) laid a good foundation with their 66-run stand in 7.4 overs.
Buttler was especially harsh on off-spinner Jayant Yadav, hammering a four and then a maximum, in the fifth over.
Buttler, who was in good form, smashed Jayant for another six in the seventh over.
He repeated the feat against Rahul Chahar (2/33), but the leg spinner dismissed him the very next ball, stumped by de Kock, with the score at 66.
Inspired by Buttler, Jaiswal too went into the attack mode and struck 2 fours and 2 sixes in a quick fire 32 off 20 balls.
Later, Rajasthan rode on a brisk 42 by skipper Sanju Samson to post a competitive 171 for four.
Jas[rit Bumrah once again underlined his reputation as the world’s foremost T20 fast bowler by giving away just 15 runs in 4 overs, at an economy rate of 3.75.
As a bonus, he also bagged the wicket of Shivam Dube.
In response, the Mumbai openers Rohit Sharma (14 runs) and Quinton de Kock put up 49 for the first wicket.
Chris Morris struck twice getting rid of Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav, with the score at 83 for 2.
There were no further alarms as De Kock remained unbeaten on 70 and Krunal Pandya scored 39 (in 26 balls) as MI cruised to a seven-wicket win.
De Kock struck six fours and two maximums to finish the job in 18.3 overs.
With Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar not in the best of nick, De Kock’s return to form is a huge confidence boost to Mumbai.
De Kock and Krunal added 63 runs for the third wicket.
The match still hung in balance till the 18th over but Morris conceded 16 runs in the over.
Kieron Pollard (16 not out) and de Kock finally took Mumbai across the finish line.
Mumbai Indians 172 for 3 (de Kock 70*, Krunal 39, Morris 2-33) beat Rajasthan Royals 171 for 4 (Samson 42, Buttler 41, Chahar 2-33) by seven wickets
