Tim David was in sensational form as he blitzed Mumbai Indians to a thrilling six-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals in their Tata India Premier League match at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, on Sunday.
MI made history by becoming the first team to chase down a score of 200 runs or more at the Wankhede. MI scored 214 for four in 19.3 overs in reply to RR's 212 for seven. It was a fitting match on the occasion of the 1000th IPL match. It was also a fitting gift to MI's captain Rohit Sharma (3), who was celebrating his 36th birthday and 10 years of captaining MI.
Rohit was unable to contribute with the bat for Mumbai. He was dismissed in the second over.
David struck three sixes in succession to close out the match and be MI's hero. The big Australian was striking at 321.45. He blitzed two fours and five sixes on his way to an imperious unbeaten 45 off 14 balls. David successfully built on a brilliant 55 off 29 by Suryakumar Yadav. The India international looked unstoppable for the most part.
Suryakumar arrived at the crease with MI in a bit of trouble. MI was on 76 for two in the ninth over. He managed to stitch together a brief 29-run partnership with Cameron Green (44 off 26). Their partnership came on the back of a decent 62-run partnership between Green and Ishan Kishan (28 off 23). Suryakumar stabilized the match and brought MI as close to victory as possible with a match-saving 51-run partnership with Tilak Varma (29 off 21). Varma and David scored 62 runs in 23 balls.
MI's team effort was enough to cancel out Yashasvi Jaiswal's sensational knock earlier in the day. RR's innings was the Yashasvi Jaiswal show.
Jaiswal put on a show of power, placement, and innovation as he struck 16 fours and eight sixes on his way to an imperious 124 off 62. His score was 58.49% of RR's total of 212. The 22-year-old was in complete control of the game and batted as if the fielders were not in play.
Jaiswal is the orange cap holder and now has the highest individual score of the season so far. The left-hander dared to attack from the onset and did not slow down at any point of the innings. He finished the match with a brilliant strike rate of 200. Jaiswal is the highest fours hitter in the season so far.
Rajasthan Royals' Ravichandran Ashwin was the best bowler in the match. The spinner conceded runs at 6.75 runs an over, the best economy in the match. He also took two wickets for 27 runs in his four overs.
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (capt), Ishan Kishan (wk), Cameron Green, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Piyush Chawla, Jofra Archer, Kumar Kartikeya, Riley Meredith, Arshad Khan.
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson (capt, wk), Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, R Ashwin, Jason Holder, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal.