Surya, David seal it for MI in IPL 2023 despite Yashasvi Jaiswal’s ton for Royals | Cricket
In the kind of form he has been in this IPL season, Yashasvi Jaiswal would have walked out on that hard and flat deck at the Wankhede Stadium in his home town licking his lips on Sunday. The Mumbai youngster walked away picking up his bat and helmet after elevating Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) batting performance against Mumbai Indians (MI) with a brilliant ton.
The left-handed opener’s 124 (62b, 16×4, 8×6) accounted for more than half of the visitors’ 212/7, which still proved not enough. Suryakumar Yadav’s authoritative 29-ball 55 got MI home with three balls and six wickets to spare and Tim David’s 14-ball 45 not out took them home. With 17 needed off the last over by Jason Holder, the big Australian finished it off with three consecutive sixes.
Jaiswal brought up his maiden IPL century with a couple of pulling and hooking deliveries, Jofra Archer was the second one sailing out of the stadium. Comeback-man Archer was on the mark with his pace—two 148kmph deliveries to Jaiswal—but didn’t have his line for Jos Buttler who took eight balls and scored a single. Jaiswal made up for it, hitting Riley Meredith for four fours in an over, including some crisp drives as RR scored 58 for five.
Piyush Chawla was instrumental in bringing the visitors back, dismissing Buttler and clearing Devdutt Padikkal with a googly, while Arshad Khan sent back Sanju Samson.
By then, with RR 103/3 in 11 overs, Jaiswal brought up his 32-ball fifty. He took only 21 more for the next 50. The left-handed batsman’s shot-making was equally entertaining, reverse-sweeping Chawla for six and dancing down the side for four. Thus, even as MI kept finding breakthroughs, Jaiswal remained a force to be reckoned with for RR. Even at the death, he hit Meredith for three consecutive fours which took him to three figures in the 18th over. He then deposited Archer over mid-off and square leg for back-to-back sixes.
The hosts’ stout climb was prolonged with skipper Rohit Sharma’s short stay in the second over bowled by a slower one by Sandeep Sharma, who cut into him and kept him shaky. Cameron Green (44, 26b) attacked Trent Boult and removed R Ashwin for six in the 58-run powerplay. Ashwin made a comeback by smashing Ishan Kishan wide and Green full out to take Mumbai past 100 in the 11th over.
Yadav dropped Ashwin on his first ball for a six on his knees, flicked and then ran away for a boundary at will. Kuldeep Sen bore the brunt of his repertoire as Yadav dismissed him for 6, 4, 4, 5NB in the 13th over of 20 runs, which also reversed Tilak Verma’s lbw. With 61 needed off 27, Yadav’s top edge was plucked out of thin air by Boult, running backward from short fine leg by Sandeep. David and Verma, however, hit two boundaries each over after that, before David’s three sixes sealed it.
