The fate of the 51st match between Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians was decided in the first half of the match when Rajasthan Royals plunged to the balling attacks of Mumbai Indians. What was supposed to be a gripping match till the last over went to being a match that the chasers ended within half the overs?

Mumbai Indians thrashed the Rajasthan Royals and registered a thumping eight-wicket victory in the 51st match of IPL 2021 in Sharjah on Tuesday by scoring 94/2 in just 8.2 overs.

Mumbai Indians blazed through the short target of 90/9 and improved their Net Run Rate from -0.453 to -0.048 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.

The Royals brought a very disappointing performance to the field and couldn’t do much in the eye of Ishan Kishan, who took home a fifty on the last ball of the innings. MI bowled slow and banged into the wicket on a length. Jimmy Neesham and Nathan Coulter-Nile also set the field ablaze by sharing seven wickets between them, giving just 25 runs.

The Royals were stunned by the bowling attacks of Mumbai Indians, and the players who chased down a massive target of 189 runs against the table topper on Chennai Super Kings couldn’t swing their shots in front of Mumbai Indians.

Rajasthan Royals made two changes in the match by bringing in Shreyas Gopal and Kuldip Yadav in place of Mayank Markande and Akash Singh. 

Mumbai Indians put Royals to bat first, and Yashasvi Jaiswal and Evin Lewis made a brisk start. However, it didn’t take Mumbai Indians to get their first breakthrough as Nathan Coulter-Nile dismissed Jaiswal in the fourth over. Following this, Bumrah had the better of Lewis in the final over of the powerplay.

The wrath of the Mumbai Indians’ bowlers continued as Neesham got two wickets in quick succession and sent Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube back.

After the four key players of the team fell, the Royals were already in a sticky situation that Coulter-Nile worsened by dismissing Glenn Phillips. RR was reduced 50/5 before Rahul Tewatia, and David Miller managed to add 21 runs together and ended their innings to 90/9.

Mumbai Indians also made some changes in their team by picking Ishan Kishan and Jimmy Neesham in place of Quinton de Kock and Krunal Pandya.

The plot of the match was already decided, and it seemed like Mumbai Indians took it upon themselves to end the match under minimum overs. Rohit Sharma gave a roaring start to their innings by striking a four and a six in the first over and went on for another maximum in the third over.

However, Chetan Sakariya counteracted the blows of Sharma and got him out in the fourth, giving RR their first breakthrough.

Suryakumar Yadav joined and hit a four in his first ball, and the team played some fantastic shots with Ishan Kishan, who was coming in confident after completing 1000 IPL runs for MI. Kishan hit three fours in the fifth over and took MI past fifty in the final over of the powerplay, where Shreyas Gopal dismissed Suryakumar Yadav. 

Ishan avenged by swinging in four and two sixes in the 8th over and then added another four and six more to take the team home along with his sensational 50 off 25 deliveries in just 8.2 overs.

Nathan Coulter-Nile was awarded as the man of the match for his fantastic score of 4/14 (4) score.

Rajasthan Royals have always been the most unpredictable team of the IPL since the beginning and not being able to make it win any match after 2008 is the price they heavily pay due to the inconsistent performances.

Now, it is clear for the fans that if KKR loses to RR and Mumbai wins against SRH, the men in blue will qualify on the backs of their highly improved Net Run Rate.

Players Talk

Rohit Sharma

“We had to come here and do what we had to do: play a good game. Once we got them for 90, we knew we could up our net run rate. It was important to come out and get off to a flyer, it was the perfect game for us to do that. We wanted Ishan to take his time, we know the ability he has, that maiden over he played out didn’t bother me. Jimmy keeps the atmosphere buzzing in the group, the chat before the game helped us a lot. We’ve been doing well, preparing well, it’s just that collectively we didn’t come together till now. All 8 teams are capable of beating each other, SRH won’t be taken lightly.

Sanju Samson

“It was a challenging wicket to bat on. First inning was much tougher to bat on. Playing our first game here, coming from Abu Dhabi which was a great batting surface, we found it tough. We’d like to play a better game of cricket in the next game. We knew they would come strong in the second innings, they batted really well.”

Nathan Coulter Nile (Man of the match)

“Tried to keep it simple. Kept changing the pace, a very hard wicket to bat on. The longer you kept banging it into the wicket, it made it harder. Bumrah and Boult are world-class bowlers, their wickets upfront made things easier.”

Stay tuned to My Casino Guru for match analysis and report of the 52nd match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad. Read the RCB vs. SRH head-to-head report before placing your bets at the IPL betting sites to win cash rewards.

While we bring you another match report you can check all the other stats of the teams at IPL updates and schedules. Also, do not forget to check the Dream 11 point system before making your fantasy teams at the fantasy sports apps.

Keep playing and keep winning until we are back with yet another IPL 2021 match update.