New Delhi: Defending champions Mumbai Indians notched up a comfortable seven-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals in an IPL game here on Thursday.
Opener Quinton de Kock smashed an unbeaten 50-ball 70, while Krunal Pandya made 39 off 26 balls as MI chased down a target of 172 in 18.3 overs to snap their two-match losing streak.
Put into bat, Rajasthan Royals posted a decent 171 for four with skipper Sanju Samson (42 off 27 balls), Jos Buttler (41 off 32 balls) and Shivam Dube (35 off 31 balls) making useful contributions.
For Mumbai, spinner Rahul Chahar (2/33) snapped two wickets, while pacers Jasprit Bumrah (1/15) and Trent Boult (1/37) scalped one each.
Chris Morris (2/33) was the most successful bowler for RR, while Mustafizur Rahman (1/) accounted for one.
Quinton de Kock | Player of the Match, said, ‘To be totally honest, this is a much better wicket in general than Chennai (bright smile). But no this did skid on a little bit better, had to play the situation. That is all I had to do. The coach and Rohit did ask us to come out and be positive today. That’s what we did and we came out on top. (On what he enjoyed most in his innings) Just getting to the team to the end. Haven’t done it often, but when I do it I thoroughly enjoy it. I just came out and tried to be positive. That’s what the coach said and I said please sign me up I want to be positive. I have played enough to understand how to go about it. I just had to rethink what I have done in the past and do it again here.’
Rohit Sharma, Winning captain, said, ‘Absolutely brilliant, we needed this win badly after a couple of losses, we did pretty much everything right, from ball one, very clinical towards the end as well. This is something that was required, we took the responsibility, good to see a complete team effort. We were positive about coming to Delhi, knew this was a good pitch, not like Chennai (laughs), we have played a lot of games and we do understand the conditions here. A good pitch, small boundaries, you always back yourself to do well , but having said that the bowlers did the job for us, came back pretty well in the death overs, giving 50 odd runs with 7 wickets in hand was a great effort. Playing the conditions well is important, we didn’t adapt well in Chennai, but we knew once that leg ended, we were going to play on good pitches. We didn’t adapt to those conditions well, but these conditions allowed our batters to come out and play the game they knew well. We have had a lot of discussions, we play in a certain manner and we want to adapt to that. It allows them to be fearless, a few guys can anchor the innings and play around the hitters. It’s important to have different characters in the team and that’s what we have got. Our bowling pleased me a lot, it’s easy to lose confidence when the opposition are doing well, but we stuck to our plans, very happy for Quinny, we know how dangerous he can be at the top of the order, good that he finished off the game. Not to forget, Krunal Pandya’s knock was crucial as well.’
