Defending champions
Mumbai Indians have been struggling throughout the second leg of the Indian
Premier League (IPL). However, they put on an impressive performance against
Sanju Samson’s Rajasthan Royals. 

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Mumbai Indians had won the toss and invited the Royals to bat
first at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. They managed a good start with both
openers firing from the start. Impressive youngster, Yashasvi Jaiswal,
opened the batter yet again but lost his wicket early on, in the third over.

It seemed like his wicket had a domino effect on the complete
batting line-up. The scoreboard read 41/1 in 5.2 overs and at the end of the
second innings it displayed a total of 90 runs in 20 overs with 9 wickets
lost. 

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Five of Rajasthan’s batsmen went back to the pavilion recording
single digit scores with Shreyas Gopal failing to open his account. 

Nathan Coulter-Nile took
four wickets in his spell while giving away just 14 runs while Jasprit Bumrah
and James Neesham provided ample support with their bowling. Neesham recorded three
wickets while the Indian pacer added two wickets to his impressive tally.

Mumbai Indians
seemed like a unit on a mission today. They are still a part of the top four
race and needed to file an impressive win to improve their Net Run Rate (NRR).

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Rohit Sharma and Ishan
Kishan stepped onto the pitch to open the batting for Mumbai. Rohit smashed 22 runs
in 13 balls at a strike rate 169 before getting caught by Yashasvi Jaiswal on Chetan
Sakariya’s delivery.

The captain’s knock
set the tone for his side’s batting with Suryakumar Yadav contributing quick 13
runs to the total and Ishan Kishan’s unforgettable knock which might help the
men in blue book a berth in the IPL 2021 playoffs.

The youngster’s
impressive tally of 55 runs in just 25 balls, recording a strike rate of 200
brought victory to the Mumbai Indians’ camp with 70 balls left to play. 

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Kolkata Knight
Riders and Mumbai Indians sit on equal points on the table and both teams have
one more group stage fixture to claim the last spot in the top four. KKR presently
occupies the fourth place in the points table because of a superior NRR.

Mumbai will play bottom
placed Sunrisers Hyderabad while Kolkata will go head to head with the
Rajasthan Royals on Thursday.