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Images from Tuesday's IPL match between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals, in Abu Dhabi.
Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah fired Mumbai Indians to their third straight victory in the Indian Premier League, outclassing Rajasthan Royals by 57 runs, in Abu Dhabi, on Tuesday.
The former hammered an unbeaten 79 off 47 balls to register his highest score in the tournament as the defending champions posted imposing 193 for four after Rohit Sharma opted to bat, at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium.
In reply, Rajasthan Royals never got going. They were reeling at 12 for three before Jos Buttler gave them a glimmer of hope, scoring 70 off 44 balls.
However, none of the other batsmen could come up with anything noteworthy and they ended up well short, scoring 136 in 18.1 overs.
It was their third successive defeat in the competition. They have four points from five matches.
Mumbai Indians, after their fourth victory, moved to the top of the table with eight points from six.
If Mumbai’s batsmen did well in posting a huge total, their pace trio was exceptional when defending it. Jasprit Bumrah was the pick of them, returning figures of four for 20, the best of the tournament so far.
Trent Boult struck twice in the powerplay while James Pattinson dismissed Buttler in the 14th over following a superb catch by Kieron Pollard. The tall West Indian leapt high and got to the ball with his right hand fully outstretched, but could not hold on to it cleanly. However, he kept his cool and pouched it after it dropped from his fingers.
Jofra Archer waged a lone battle after that, scoring 25 off 11 balls, including 3 fours and a six, but it was not enough to halt the Royals's losing run.
It is still early days in the tournament but it seems Mumbai Indians have already figured out their best eleven on the park.
Earlier, Suryakumar led Mumbai Indians’s fightback. Coming in after the fall of Quinton de Kock (23) and Rohit Sharma (35) in the tenth over, he blasted 11 fours and two sixes to put them in a strong position.
He was well-supported by Hardik Pandya, who scored 30 from 19 balls, in the final overs. The pair put on an unbroken stand of 75 from 38 balls for the fifth wicket, garnering 51 runs from the last three overs.
Shreyas Gopal was Rajasthan Royals's most economical bowler, with figures of 2 for 28 from his four overs.
Jofra Archer also bowled a tidy spell, conceding 34 runs in his fours, including the wicket of Krunal Pandya (12). Kartik Tyagi accounted for the other wicket, dismissing de Kock in the fifth over.
Opting to bat, openers Rohit (35 off 23) and De Kock (23 off 15 balls) put up a brisk 49-run stand before Tyagi struck in his first over in the IPL, taking the key wicket of de Kock, to check Mumbai's early charge.
The South African top edged the pull shot and the ball went high on the leg side for wicketkeeper Jos Buttler to complete an easy catch.
Yadav, at the other end, smashed Tyagi for three boundaries in the ninth over. However, leggie Shreyas Gopal (2/28) struck twice in as many balls, removing Rohit and Ishan Kishan (0) to leave Mumbai in a spot at 88 for three in the 10th over.
While Rohit offered a sitter to Rahul Tewatia at long-on, Sanju Samson took a running catch at extra-cover to send Kishan back before he could open his account.
Yadav though kept his cool and played his shots, scoring successive boundaries off Gopal in the 12th over.
Mumbai Indians were reduced then to 117 for four, after Krunal fell cheaply, but Yadav launched into the Rajasthan attack. He was particularly brutal on Tom Curran (0/33) in the 18th over that went for 19 runs.
His unbeaten knock comprised 11 fours and two sixes.