IPL 2018: Match 21, RR vs MI - Who Said What

The eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is not for light-hearted cricket fans. The super Sunday saw a couple of heart-wrenching thrillers. While CSK prevailed ‘as usual‘ in the first game of the day, MI ended up on the wrong side ‘as usual‘. Rajasthan Royals (RR) found a hero in Krishnappa Gowtham as he just won the game for his side from the jaws of defeat. One of the World’s best death bowlers Jasprit Bumrah was put under pressure by him and took him apart as the home side sealed the game by 3 wickets.

After opting to bat first, Mumbai got off to a worst possible as Evin Lewis bagged a golden duck who was castled by Dhawal Kulkarni in the very first over. But the duo of Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav batted superbly and just had fun in the middle by adding 130 runs for the second wicket. While the former struggled early on, his partner was on song today with some worthy pick-up shots on show. Surya targetted the leg-side mostly and was successful in that more often than not.

Both of them scored half-centuries and got out in the successive overs as the Royals made a stunning comeback in the death overs. It was led by the debutant Jofra Archer as he picked 3 wickets in the penultimate over out of which a couple were brilliant yorkers. The visitors finished their innings with an under-par score of 167 runs for the loss of 7 wickets when one thought they would easily cross 200 at one stage.

The chase was going smoothly until the 15th over for the Royals as the duo of Ben Stokes and Sanju Samson steered the team amidst the required run-rate kept on hovering around 9 to 9.5. But the wicket of the former brought the visitors back in the game even as Bumrah bowled a magical 17th over to scalp Samson and Jos Buttler. The next over saw Heinrich Klaasen following the suit as the hopes were lost for the Royals. But the hero of the day had just arrived as he was helped a bit by the IPL debutant Archer and the victory was clinched in the thriller.

Man of the Match, Jofra Archer said:

It is good to be back on the park after missing the first few games. We just wanted to restrict them after it looked like they would get to 190. Stokesy had a chat with us at the half way stage and told us we needed to restrict them.

That’s exactly what we did and then chased it down (swag smile). It was a bit nervy coming to the end, when we needed 40 in 20, but with the talent we had in the line up we knew it would be easy. The heartbeat hasn’t come down as yet; still pumping from that win.

Rajasthan Royals captain, Ajinkya Rahane said:

I still can’t believe what happened. I just want to give credit to my bowlers for the way they came back after 14 overs because it looked like they’d get to 180-190. But in the end KG’s knock was unbelievable. In the time-out the plan was to take it deep.

We knew we had hitters like Jos, Ben, Klassen and Jofra who could hit the ball a long way. We knew that we were always just two big shots away. Rahul batted really well at the top of the order last year, and that is the combination we wanted to go in with.

It looks like we’ll still continue with that. We are happy to see Jofra back, his spell and the way Jaydev and Dhawal bowled in the middle overs was the key.

Jofra can bowl at 140+ and his pace and accuracy was amazing. He’s always thinking about wickets and when you do that your mindset is always positive which is the way to go about.

Man of the Moment, Krishnappa Gowtham said:

On top of the world. I had a decent first class year. The captain asked me to believe and that’s what I did. It worked. You just need a good hit with 6 needed off 3 balls. That’s what I was thinking when I denied the single.

Mumbai Indians captain, Rohit Sharma said:

Not easy, especially towards the end. Have to give credit to them; they played well. Not easy to score 10 an over given how the wicket was playing. I think (not finishing well with the bat) hurt us. We didn’t capitalize on the start.

Second or third time we have done that. I hope we can learn from the mistakes. Wasn’t easy (towards the end of the innings), because they were taking the pace off but we needed to be smarter.

It is not easy, which is probably the reason why I haven’t been critical about my bowling unit. 20 runs more would have made the difference.