RR’s Yashasvi Jaiswal, after scoring 100 runs during the IPL match against MI, at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur, on April 22, 2024.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

Impressed with the maturity shown by Yashasvi Jaiswal, West Indies cricket legend Brian Lara said the youngster’s knock against Mumbai Indians was well put together as he perfectly balanced taking his time with shots while still maintaining a high strike-rate.

Jaiswal ended a barren run by his lofty standards with his first ton of this IPL to power Rajasthan Royals to a nine-wicket win over MI here.

“Yeah, beautiful. But the fact of the matter is, he’s taking his time, looking at the ball right from up at the back, and he’s playing cricketing shots. He’s got all the stuff, he doesn’t have to worry about it,” Lara said on Star Sports Cricket Live.

Jaiswal struck nine fours and seven sixes to make an unbeaten 104 from only 60 balls, a knock which was replete with powerful shots on the leg side and crispy drives.

“And when you do get on top of the bowlers, that’s when you take it back, because that’s what I love about Yashasvi.

“It was well put together, great cricketing shots, he’s managed throughout the innings, and anyone knows, if you’re chasing such a good total, at Jaipur and you bounce through the innings, you’re soon as going to get there.

“So he’s shown a lot of responsibility, a lot of maturity, and I’m very happy to have him back.” Medium pacer Sandeep Sharma starred with the ball of RR. He wreaked havoc in the MI camp with the ongoing IPL season’s best bowling performance — 5 for 18.

“Very, very big impact, and also mentioned the fact that he went unsold a couple of years ago, and came in as a replacement player, and this man is cherishing every moment he has out in the middle.”

Sharma had gone unsold at the auction two years ago. RR signed him as a replacement for Prasidh Krishna and the 30-year-old is repaying the faith.

“Every cricketer in India wants to play in the IPL, and they want to play continuously, and that disappointment of not being selected in an IPL auction, he’s now repaying Rajasthan Royals for their belief in him, he is a true professional.

“I’ve watched him over the years, he’s not express-paced, he’s not, you know, one of the boys that, you know, everyone talks about, but he gets the job done every time he goes out in the middle, and he’s just that consummate professional that every team likes to have in their ranks,” Lara said.

With the win, RR consolidated their top spot and inched closer to the playoffs and former Australia skipper Aaron Finch lauded Sanju Samson’s leadership skill.

“He’s leading the side unbelievably well, you can see how calm RR are when they’re under pressure. And the only game they lost was when they had that meltdown against GT right at the back end of the game, so they’ve been so clinical right throughout this IPL and a lot of credit has to go to Sanju for that,” Finch said.

With three wins in last four games, MI have hit the recovery road to reach sixth spot in the points table after a poor start this season. File
| Photo Credit: R.V. Moorthy

After serving up two edge-of-the-seat thrillers in their previous games, Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians clash at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium here on Monday with contrasting aspirations.

RR currently sits atop the IPL 2024 standings, failing to win only one out of its seven matches. The fightback from a precarious position against Kolkata Knight Riders, owing to Jos Buttler’s brilliance, will have further boosted the team’s morale. A win at home against the five-time winner could see the team solidify its position in the top two.

MI, conversely, finds itself embroiled in the mid-table scuffle, trying to string together a few positive results to aid its playoff chances. After a disastrous start to the campaign, losing three successive games amid lingering fan displeasure, the team has accumulated six points in the next four games.

Yashasvi Jaiswal’s dwindling returns are the only major concern for the table-topper, but the middle-order, led by Riyan Parag, has stepped up when required, ensuring the team’s long tail isn’t exposed.

The nail-biting win over Punjab Kings exposed a few chinks in the MI bowling armour — the opposition making a match out of it despite being reduced to 77 for six within the 10th over. The team might be forced to ring in a few changes to counter the frailty.

Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan have provided MI with the perfect platform at the top, but the team will need extended support from the middle-order to exact revenge on the Royals at its den.

Teams

Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (c), Jos Buttler, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Donovan Ferreira, Kunal Rathore, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Sen, Navdeep Saini, Sandeep Sharma, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Avesh Khan, Rovman Powell, Shubham Dubey, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Abid Mushtaq, Nandre Burger, Tanush Kotian, Keshav Maharaj.

Mumbai Indians: Hardik Pandya (c), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Dewald Brevis, Jasprit Bumrah, Piyush Chawla, Gerald Coetzee, Tim David, Shreyas Gopal, Ishan Kishan (wk), Anshul Kamboj, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Kwena Maphaka, Mohammad Nabi, Shams Mulani, Naman Dhir, Shivalik Sharma, Romario Shepherd, Arjun Tendulkar, Nuwan Thushara, Tilak Varma, Harvik Desai, Nehal Wadhera, Luke Wood.

Time: 7:30 p.m. IST

Rajasthan Royals’ Trent Boult in action during the Indian Premier League 2024 match against Mumbai Indians in Mumbai on April 1, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini

Rohit Sharma, the India captain, was cheered. Hardik Pandya was jeered, and cheered as well. Neither Rohit, who continued to be worshipped despite being replaced as Mumbai Indians skipper, nor Hardik, his successor, could withstand the Rajasthan Royals onslaught.

Royals lived up to the reputation of being the best bowling unit in the Indian Premier League to set up a facile win at the Wankhede Stadium.

The left-arm pace duo of Trent Boult and Nandre Burger rattled the Mumbai Indians’ top-order. The spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and R. Ashwin then ensured the Royals took a firm grip on the game at the break.

Despite Hardik and Tilak Varma’s resurrecting partnership of 56 runs for the fifth wicket, Mumbai Indians could only manage 125 for nine.

Akash Madhwal then marked his first outing of the season with an impressive spell but Riyan Parag — who notched up his second successive fifty with consecutive sixes off Gerald Coetzee — took Royals home in the 16th over.

The night, though, belonged to Boult and Chahal. Thrice in his first two overs Boult saw the back of a batter who was facing his first ball. He accounted for Rohit (who poked at one that swung away to be caught by a lunging Sanju Samson) and Naman Dhir (leg-before off one that came into him) off the last two balls of the first over.

At one for two, Dewald Brevis became the earliest Impact Player introduced in IPL. But Boult, whose hat-trick was saved by Ishan Kishan, had Brevis caught at gully by Burger.

When Burger accounted for Ishan in the fifth, at 20 for four, MI was in danger of being bowled out cheaply. In came Hardik and was booed for the fourth time while taking guard. But as Hardik started timing the ball to precision, the jeers turned into cheers. A charge down the wicket for a one-bounced four over mid-on was the highlight of his three fours.

Chahal then enticed Hardik into mistiming a heave to long-on to peg MI back. He went on to bamboozle the lower-order to finish with superb figures of three for 11.

Despite Boult’s barrage, Chahal’s chivalry and Riyan’s robust hitting, the night will be remembered for how Hardik was treated on his return to his IPL alma mater.

IPL’s perennial slow-starters Mumbai Indians under new captain Hardik Pandya will hope for a happy homecoming when they take on a confident Rajasthan Royals at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 1.

Despite the change at the helm with Pandya replacing five-time title-winning skipper Rohit Sharma — a move that has sparked brutal attack on the former — Mumbai Indians have once again made a familiar disappointing start to their IPL campaign as they lost their first two matches.

A six-run defeat to Pandya’s former team Gujarat Titans was followed by a walloping by Sunrisers Hyderabad who won the record run-fest by 32 runs in Hyderabad, with Mumbai Indians plummeting to the last spot in the 10-team points table.

These are still early days in the 17th edition of the T20 league but Pandya’s Mumbai Indians will need to end their losing streak and improve their Net Run Rate which is the worst among all teams at -0.925.

Among the odds stacked up against them is the absence of Suryakumar Yadav, who remains on the sidelines as he is recovering from two separate injuries which have kept him away from the MI camp this IPL.

Even though Mumbai Indians enjoy a 4-1 head-to-head record in their last five meetings with Rajasthan Royals, the home side will have a tough task at hand given Sanju Samson’s team has turned up all guns blazing to begin their IPL season with two wins.

A big score is due from Rohit who has provided strong starts to Mumbai but what they truly need is Pandya to get his decisions right. Pandya has evidently not used Jasprit Bumrah to the best way possible and Mumbai Indians will have a chance to iron out such flaws.

Bumrah and Piyush Chawla bring the element of experience to the table in the MI bowling attack which has shown trust on local boy Shams Mulani, who is relatively new at the IPL stage but immensely experienced when it comes to playing at the Wankhede Stadium.

The young Kwena Maphaka was at the receiving end of the carnage that SRH handed to Mumbai Indians in their last game but the 17-year-old South African will only learn from experience of the hard ways that come to the bowlers’ way in such a competitive T20 league.

On their part, Rajasthan Royals will look to keep ticking all the boxes after two wins at the start.

Samson remains dangerous in the early stages of the IPL while the immensely talented Yashasvi Jaiswal, who is yet to fire in this IPL, would be keen to get his first big score of this season.

Jaiswal is returning to his home ground where he had blazed a 62-ball 124 albeit for a losing cause in their last meeting here, and he will be eager to stamp his class.

Riyan Parag is primed to continue his ascent as a mature middle-order batter, whereas for Mumbai, Tilak Varma, Tim David and Naman Dhir would aim to make the most of their positive starts.

Apart from having a long batting line-up which also boasts of the dangerous Jos Buttler at the top and Dhruv Jurel to provide finishing touches, it is their all-round bowling attack which puts forth a lot of promise.

While Nandre Burger has teamed up well with Trent Boult for early inroads, the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal can control the flow of runs in the middle.

Avesh Khan’s control at the death along with Sandeep Sharma is Royals’ forte and has been among crucial factors for Rajasthan’s fine show so far.

The Squads

Mumbai Indians: Hardik Pandya (c), Rohit Sharma, Dewald Brevis, Jasprit Bumrah, Piyush Chawla, Gerald Coetzee, Tim David, Shreyas Gopal, Ishan Kishan (wk), Anshul Kamboj, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Kwena Maphaka, Mohammad Nabi, Shams Mulani, Naman Dhir, Shivalik Sharma, Romario Shepherd, Arjun Tendulkar, Nuwan Thushara, Tilak Varma, Vishnu Vinod, Nehal Wadhera, Luke Wood, Suryakumar Yadav.

Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (c), Abid Mushtaq, Avesh Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Donovan Ferreira, Jos Buttler (wk), Kuldeep Sen, Kunal Singh Rathore, Nandre Burger, Navdeep Saini, Ravichandran Ashwin, Riyan Parag, Sandeep Sharma, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Rovman Powell, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Trent Boult, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Yuzvendra Chahal, Tanush Kotian.

Match starts: 7:30 p.m. IST.