IPL: Mumbai Indians hammer Rajasthan Royals to stay in race for final knockout place

Mumbai Indians beat Rajasthan Royals by eight wickets to stay in the race for the final IPL play-off berth; the Royals were restricted to 90-9 and Mumbai needed only 8.2 overs to knock off the runs with Ishan Kishan hitting 50no from 25 balls

By Sam Drury

Tuesday 5 October 2021 18:57, UK

Defending champions Mumbai Indians needed just 8.2 overs to chase down the 91 runs needed to beat Rajasthan Royals and keep their Indian Premier League play-off hopes alive.

Mumbai went into the game knowing that defeat would eliminate them from knockout contention but thrived under the pressure as they delivered a near-complete performance in romping to an eight-wicket win in Sharjah.

Nathan Coulter-Nile (4-14) and Jimmy Neesham (3-12) were the standout performers with the ball as Rajasthan limped to 90-9 before Ishan Kishan, recalled to the top of the order, blitzed an unbeaten 25-ball 50 to take Mumbai to victory with 11.4 overs remaining.

Mahela Jayawardene's side are up to fifth, level on points with Kolkata Knight Riders in fourth, but with a significantly inferior net run-rate, they are still likely to need a favour from the now all-but eliminated Royals against KKR on Thursday before taking on bottom side Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday.

Having been asked to bat first, Rajasthan started brightly and even when Coulter-Nile had Yashasvi Jaiswal (12) caught behind in the fourth over there was little to hint at the collapse to come.

The Royals were 41-1 before Jasprit Bumrah had Evin Lewis (24 from 19 balls) lbw in the last over of the powerplay but that quickly became 50-5.

Neesham struck with his first ball to remove the in-form Sanju Samson (3) and then forced Shivam Dube (0) to drag the ball onto his own stumps in the next over before Coulter-Nile castled Glenn Phillips (4) soon after.

Rahul Tewatia (12 from 20) and David Miller (15 from 23) did their best to rebuild for Rajasthan but were accounted for by Neesham and Coulter-Nile, respectively, before they could kick on with Bumrah (2-14) dismissing Shreyas Gopal (0) in between.

Coulter-Nile then bowled Chetan Sakariya (6) in the 19th over and while No 11 Mustafizur Rahman (8no) gave Rajasthan something to smile about by hitting Trent Boult over long on for six from the penultimate ball of the innings, it proved of little consequence.

Mumbai came flying out of the traps, perhaps with that net run-rate in mind, with Rohit (22 from 13) clearing the ropes twice in the first three overs, only to depart to Sakariya (1-36) in the fourth.

Suryakumar Yadav then fell to Mustafizur (1-32) having thumped three boundaries and by that stage, it was already a matter of when rather than if Mumbai got over the line.

Kishan, brought in to replace Quinton de Kock, had managed to find his feet after a relatively fallow season and once his confidence was up he finished the game in a hurry, smashing a four and three sixes in the last five balls he faced and bringing up his half-century with the match-winning maximum in the ninth over.

Mumbai must now beat Sunrisers on Friday to qualify for the knockout stages but will have to wait for the result of Thursday's clash between KKR and the Royals to find out what manner of victory is required.

Watch Royal Challengers Bangalore take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL from 2.50pm, Wednesday on Sky Sports Cricket.