Abu Dhabi: Talismanic Mumbai Indians batsman Suryakumar Yadav scored fifty to help his side post 193/4 against Rajasthan Royals, here at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Tuesday.
After winning the toss MI captain Rohit Sharma opted to bat first and proved his decision right by giving a solid start to his team. The opening pair of Rohit and Quinton de Kock smashed 49 runs in just five overs. de Kock was removed by Kartik Tyagi after adding 23 runs to the team's total in just 15 balls.
Rohit then stitched a partnership with Yadav. The duo took the team's total to 88 in 10th over of the innings. Both were looking in solid touch and was sitting around 200 runs target.
Just when everything was going by MI's way, Steve Smith brought in Shreyas Gopal, who took wickets on back to back balls to remove set Rohit and Ishan Kishan. Kishan failed to trouble scorers.
Mumbai was in desperate need of a partnership and Yadav was batting beautifully at one end. Krunal Pandya, who smashed few balls out of the park in the last match, failed to get going in this match. He was sent back to the dugout by Jofra Archer.
After the wicket of Krunal, Hardik Pandya came to the crease and smoked a few awesome shots. On completing fifty Yadav also started playing innovative shots. Yadav remained unbeaten at 79, which is also his highest score in IPL. The right-hand batsman smashed two maximums and 11 boundaries.
On the other hand, For Rajasthan Royals leg spinner Gopal had the best day as he picked two wickets by giving away just 28 runs. Archer and Tyagi clinched one wicket each. While Tom Curran and Anikt Rajput had a bad day as they leaked runs at the rate of 11 and 14 per over respectively.
