Englishman Jos Buttler laid the platform with a rampaging 89 while Shreyas Gopal held his nerve at the death to power Rajasthan Royals to a four-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians in an Indian Premier League encounter in Mumbai on Saturday.
This was Royals’ second victory of the season in seven gamesafter losing a last ball thriller to CSK less than 48 hours back.
Put into bat, Mumbai Indians rode on a aggressive 81 bySouth African Quinton De Kock to post an imposing 187/5, but Buttler’s 43-ballknock studded with eight fours and seven sixes set the tone before Royalssurvived a scare to finish the game in 19.3 overs.
The match was a forgettable one for young West Indies pacerAlzarri Joseph (0/53 in 3 overs), who was hammered for eight fours and threesixes and then was injured trying to save a boundary.
The 13th over changed the game’s complexion as Buttlersmashed two sixes and four fours off Joseph to bring down the equation to amanageable run-a-ball.
Buttler first conjured a 60-run opening stand with skipperAjinkya Rahane (37 off 21 balls, 6x 4; 1×6) to lay the foundation and thenadded 87 runs for the second wicket with Sanju Samson (31 off 26 balls; 2×4,1×6).
Buttler initially played second fiddle to Rahane but thenupped his ante once skipper was gone. The Englishman in the eighth over, hitRahul Chahar for a six, and then in next over, smashed two sixes off KrunalPandya as he raced to 50 off 29 balls.
When Buttler departed in the 14th over, Rajasthan needed 41runs. But then came the twist in the tale when Mumbai did make a comeback ofsorts sending four batsman — Samson, Rahul Tripathi (1), Steve Smith (12 ) andLiam Livingstone (1) — back to the pavilion as Rajasthan slumped to 174.6 from147/2.
However, Shreyas Gopal (13 not out) and K Gowtham (0 notout) held their nerves to take the side home in a tense situation. Gopal hitthe winning boundary off Hardik Pandya as celebrations erupted in the Rajasthancamp.
Joseph was the costliest bowler having conceded 53 runs inthree overs.
Earlier, Quinton de Kock hit a belligerent 81 as he poweredMumbai Indians to an imposing 187 for 5 against Rajasthan Royals in theirIndian Premier League game here Saturday.
South African De Kock was the wrecker-in-chief as he hammered six fours and four sixes in his 52-ball knock and got able support from skipper Rohit Sharma (47 off 32 balls), who made a comeback after missing out the last Mumbai game due to a leg injury.