Rajasthan Royals beats Hardik's Mumbai Indians emphatically; century for Jaiswal

JAIPUR: Having won seven of its 8 league matches so far in this year's Indian Premier League (IPL), Rajasthan Royals led by Sanju Samson is just one victory away from making it to the playoffs. On Monday, RR emphatically beat Mumbai Indians by 9 wickets, thanks to a stellar century by opener Yashaswi Jaiswal (104* off 60). Chasing a target of 180 runs, RR managed to cross the winning line with 8 balls to spare. Jos Butler (35 off 25) and Sanju Samson (38* off 28) provided great support to Jaiswal.

Scores: Mumbai Indians 179-9 (20), Rajasthan Royals 183-1 (18.4).

Mumbai Indians, who won the toss and batted first, got off to a poor start. The team lost the crucial wickets of Rohit Sharma (6 off 5), Ishan Kishan (0 off 3) and Suryakumar Yadav (10 off 8) by the time it scored 20 runs. At one point, MI was struggling at 52/4 in 7.3 overs when Nehal Vadhera (49 off 24) joined Tilak Verma (65 off 45) for the sixth wicket. The two then built a solid partnership of 99 runs and took the team to 151/4. However, the RR bowlers struck back at the back end of the innings and took five wickets in the last 4 overs. MI managed to add only 28 runs more to the team score in the last four overs. Sandeep Sharma (5 for 18) took five wickets for Rajasthan.