Rajasthan Royals had their fate in their own hands. To book themselves the last playoffs spot, they needed to beat Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede on Sunday. They did that, convincingly.
In a game where Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was out for a single-digit score, a rarity in this IPL, and none in the Royals’ line-up got a half-century, the Riyan Parag-led team somehow stretched their total to 205/8 before restricting Mumbai to 175/9 to register a 30-run victory.
The Royals, with this win, finished fourth at the end of the league phase of their campaign with 16 points and will face Sunrisers Hyderabad next in the Eliminator in Mullanpur on Wednesday.
Their victory also meant Punjab Kings and the Kolkata Knight Riders were knocked out of the playoffs race.
A huge amount of credit for the Royals’ victory would go to Jofra Archer. Put into bat, the Royals were struggling at 139/6 in the 16th over with most of their established batters back in the dugout.
Archer, however, put up some resistance in the form of his 15-ball 32 and a 35-run seventh-wicket partnership with Shubham Dubey, which pushed the team total to 175. Archer’s cameo included three maximums and a boundary. Following his dismissal, Impact Player Ravindra Jadeja (in for Shubham) and Nandre Burger accumulated 30 off the last two overs of the innings to help their side past 200.
With the ball, Archer used the seam to perfection to account for Mumbai’s Impact Player Rohit Sharma, who was caught behind in the very first over of the run chase. The seam presentation to dismiss Rohit was almost dead straight, while it was a tad inward-shaped when Archer cleaned up Naman Dhir in his second over.
Mumbai still had a bit of hope, though, during the partnerships Suryakumar Yadav stitched with Will Jacks and captain Hardik Pandya for the fifth and sixth wickets, respectively. Both Surya and Hardik were well set, as Mumbai needed 59 off the last 30 balls, which wasn’t too tough a task.
Skipper Riyan Parag brought Archer back in the 16th over, and in the very first over of his second spell, the England pacer struck with a slower short ball to account for Hardik. Archer finished with 3/17, bowling 13 dot balls.
Soon after, Burger had Surya caught behind, which kind of ended Mumbai’s hopes of reaching the target.
Burger, Brijesh Sharma and Yash Raj Punja took two wickets each.