Jaipur: Rajasthan Royals began their Champions League Twenty20 campaign in superb fashion as they thrashed IPL 6 champions Mumbai Indians by seven wickets in their Group A match, here on Saturday evening.
It was a good all-round show by the hosts as they first restricted the visitors to 142 for seven, using helpful conditions well, and then comfortably overhauled the target with two balls to spare at Sawai Man Singh stadium.
Opener Sanju Samson survived an lbw decision off left-arm quick Mitchell Johnson when on one and went on to score a 54-run knock that set up the victory.
Samson shared a 74-run stand for the second wicket with Ajinkya Rahane (33) after early fall of skipper Rahul Dravid and then Shane Watson Watson came up with a breezy 27 to steer the side to the finish line as Rajasthan yet again proved that they are a force on home turf.
Mumbai, who were asked to bat, owed their total to skipper Rohit Sharma (44) and burly West Indies batsman Kieron Pollard (42) even as paceman Vikramjit Malik (3/24) did well for the hosts with his three-wicket haul.
Malik was also named Man-of-the-Match for his fine bowling.
Samson, who had impressed in IPL-VI, and Rahane steadily build the innings, relying on rotation of the strike.
They punished bad deliveries with some exquisite shots and were hardly troubled by the Mumbai bowlers.
It was one poor shot that ended Rahane’s knock as he was early into a pull shot off Rishi Dhawan, found a bottom-edge which fell on to his stumps.
Samson too departed after completing his half-century but Watson and Stuart Binny ensured that the good work does not got waste.
The two shared a 41-run stand for the unbeaten fourth wicket. Watson took 22 balls for his knock and hit two sixes while Binny’s 27 came off 14 balls with three fours and a six.
Binny finished the match with in style with a six off Nathan Coulter-Nile over long-on.
Earlier, Mumbai Indians were struggling at 43 for four at one stage but Sharma stabilised the innings with his sensible batting while Pollard hit some lusty blows towards the end of their 20 overs to up the run rate, although it eventually proved too little. (PTI)
SCORECARD
Mumbai Indians:
D Smith lbw Malik 9
S Tendulkar c Samson b Binny 15
D Karthik b Malik 2
R Sharma c Samson b Watson 44
A Rayudu run out 3
K Pollard c Samson b Malik 42
H Singh run out 8
NM Coulter-Nile not out 12
R Dhawan not out 0
Extras: (lb-2, w-5) 7
Total: (7 wkts; 20 overs) 142
FOW: 1-9, 2-26, 3-38, 4-43, 5-95, 6-130, 7-141
Bowling: Menaria 2-0-9-0, Malik 4-0-24-3, Faulkner 4-0-31-0, Watson 3-0-26-1, Binny 2-0-13-1, Shukla 2-0-6-0, Cooper 3-0-31-0
Rajasthan Royals:
R Dravid c Pollard b C-Nile 1
A Rahane b Dhawan 33
S Samson c Smith b Pollard 54
S Watson not out 27
S Binny not out 27
Extras: (lb-4, w-2) 6
Total: (3 wkts; 19.4 overs) 148
FOW: 1-5, 2-79, 3-107
Bowling: Johnson 4-0-38-0, Coulter-Nile 3.4-0-22-1, Dhawan 4-0-17-1, Ojha 1-0-13-0, Harbhajan 3-0-22-0, Pollard 3-0-20-1, D Smith 1-0-12-0