Rohit Sharma’s boys give him a big gift on birthday, beat RR by 5 wickets

Mumbai, April 30: Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma would never forget the gift his team gave on his 35th Birthday. Mumbai team ended their eight-match losing streak in the ongoing IPL 2022 with a five-wicket win against Rajasthan Royals (RR) here at the DY Patil Sports Academy on Saturday. The match was not a walk in the park for the birthday boy Rohit Sharma-led side.

MI were cruising with Suryakumar Yadav (51) and Tilak Varma (35) in the middle. However, their dismissals in the 15th and 16th overs opened the match for Royals thanks to Yuzvendra Chahal and Prasidh Krishna. Two new batters – Kieron Pollard (10) and Tim David (20 not out off 9) – found themselves in a tricky situation. But David shrugged off the pressure with two back-to-back boundaries in the 18th over off the bowling of Kuldeep Sen. Prasidh bowled the penultimate over well but brilliant running between the wickets brought the equation down to four needed off the final over. In the first ball of the 20th over, Sen sent Pollard packing as the West Indian was caught at deep fine leg. The incoming Daniel Sams didn’t waste much time as he dispatched the second ball for a maximum, thus handing MI the first win. Suryakumar and Tilak stitched a solid 81-run partnership for the third wicket to keep MI in the game following the early departure of openers Rohit (2) and Ishan Kishan (26). Earlier in the day, Royals celebrated and remembered their former skipper late Shane Warne at the venue, where the Australian legend lifted the inaugural IPL trophy back in 2008. The players also donned special jerseys with ‘SW23’ initials on the collar of their kits. Jos Buttler’s fighting knock of 67 off 52 helped Royals to post 158/6. The first 10 overs of RR’s innings saw a conventional Buttler, but the extraordinary version of the Englishman in the latter half which saw him whacking Hrithik Shokeen for four consecutive sixes took RR to a moderate total. Shokeen (2/47) handed MI an early wicket as he removed Devdutt Padikkal for 15. The RR opener sliced to long-off where Pollard caught him. Debutant Kumar Kartikeya then bagged his maiden IPL wicket in the eighth over. The 24-year-old left-arm spinner, who finished with the figures of 1/19 in his four-over quota, dismissed RR skipper Sanju Samson (16). MI bowlers kept RR in check in the middle overs before Buttler changed his gears. The Englishman, who was struggling in the middle to play his powerful shots, finally released pressure in the 16th over off the bowling of Shokeen. The off-spinner conceded four back-to-back maximums before delivering a dot in the fifth ball. Shokeen had the last laugh as he sent Buttler packing on the sixth ball. The Englishman couldn’t read an outside off and ended up giving a catch at long-off. Towards the end, Ravichandran Ashwin turned out to play a surprising innings for which MI were not prepared. Ashwin’s quickfire batting saw three boundaries and one maximum. (UNI)