Navi Mumbai, April 30: Navi Mumbai, Apr 30 (PTI) Seasoned Suryakumar Yadav and young Tilak Varma gave the best 35th birthday present to their skipper Rohit Sharma as Mumbai Indians finally opened their account, beating Rajasthan Royals by five wickets in an IPL match here on Saturday.
Chasing a victory target of 159, MI reached home in 19.2 overs, courtesy Surya (51 off 39 balls) and Tilak (35 off 30 balls) adding 81 for the third wicket.
It was MI’s first win after eight successive defeats and even though the result bears little consequence but it is certainly going to keep the five-time champions in a good mind space.
Surya and Tilak sang the redemption song with Tim David (20 not out off 9 balls) providing the finishing touch. It was Daniel Sams who hit the winning six to send the spectators into a frenzy.
Rohit’s run of poor scores continued as he tried a slog sweep off Ravichandran Ashwin and offered an easy catch to Daryl Mitchell at square leg.
Surya was once again smooth in his strokeplay and so was MI’s most consistent player of the season Tilak, whose lofted six was a delightful watch.
The duo took their time to settle down, taking the team’s score to 75 in first 10 overs and set an ideal platform to knock off the remaining 82 off the back-10.
Surya brought up his fifty with a muscular six over wide long-on off Ashwin’s last delivery off his spell.
Tilak followed suit with his second six but soon after both the batters fell going for unnecessary big shots when it wasn’t the need of the hour.
From 122/2, MI slumped to 122/4 with Pollard and David at the crease.
Earlier, Buttler threatened to hit six sixes in an over but managed four on the bounce in his 52-ball-67 as Rajasthan Royals were restricted to 158 for six by Mumbai Indians in a what was a below par batting show.
Buttler launched into rookie off-spinner Hrithik Shokeen, hitting him for four consecutive sixes between the long-on to long-off arc.
He holed out in the deep in the final ball of the 16th over as MI prevented the England marauder to cause more damage at the death.
Shokeen, who had bowled flat and tight in the previous games, looked like a lamb for slaughter conceding 47 in 3 overs. In nine games, Buttler has already amassed 566 runs at an average which is northwards of 70 and a strike-rate of 155 plus. (PTI)
