Mumbai Indians were on the wrong end of a nail-biter yet again as Rajasthan Royals beat them by three wickets in Jaipur.
Rajasthan looked dead and buried in their chase, needing 43 off the last 17 balls with just four wickets in hand, but a stunning cameo from off-spinner K Gowtham, who scored an unbeaten 33 off 11 balls, took the Royals home with two balls to spare.
For Mumbai, it was another case of coming up just short, as their death-overs performance with both bat and ball let them down.
MUMBAI’S DEATH BOWLING WOES CONTINUE
Mumbai’s bowling line-up seems to be well-equipped for the death overs, with Jasprit Bumrah and Mustafizur Rahman in their ranks. Yet they’ve let sure-fire victories slip away because of their inability to close out opposition batting line-ups late in games.
Here, Bumrah bowled a stunning 17th over, taking two wickets and conceding just one run to put Mumbai in command. Rahman followed that up by taking a wicket off the first ball of his next over, but then conceded 15, and then Bumrah conceded another 18.
It was another failure in what is supposed to be an area of strength for Mumbai.
How one bowler can turn from hero to villain: Bumrah got Sanju and Butler in one over and then conceded 18 in his next and then bowled a customary no ball: Cricket can be cruel!
— Shahid Hashmi (@hashmi_shahid) April 22, 2018
JOFRA ARCHER, RAJASTHAN’S TRUMP CARD?
For all the innovation and improvement in bowling skill that has come about because of T20, there’s still little that beats the thrill of express pace. Enter Jofra Archer.
The young West Indian made his IPL debut for the Royals on Sunday after much hype, and he lived up to the expectation. His bowling clocked 145+ on occasion, and he blasted out two Mumbai Indians batsmen – Hardik Pandya and Mitchell McCleneghan – with his pace.
Before that, he’d picked up the wicket of the dangerous Krunal Pandya with a knuckleball, showing his variety. Archer could be the find of the tournament.
Jofra Archer's first over in #IPL2018 -
— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) April 22, 2018
1⃣ - 138.3 kph
2⃣ - 140.8 kph
3⃣ - 147.7 kph
4⃣ - 141.6 kph
5⃣ - 144.5 kph
6⃣ - 145.1 kph
He's arrived, well and truly. #RRvMI
LESSER-KNOWN INDIAN PLAYERS SHINE AGAIN
The big Indian stars on show didn’t have great games. Bumrah had that one good over, but overall his death bowling let the Indians down. Rohit Sharma was run out without facing a ball, Ajinkya Rahane had a stuttering innings, and Hardik Pandya bowled a poor final over after scoring just four runs.
In their stead, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson, Dhawal Kulkarni, and of course K Gowtham shone with their performances. Yadav, Kishan and Samson all scored half-centuries, Kulkarni had figures of 2-32, and Gowtham bowled an economical spell before his late batting heroics.
i know Jofra Archer turned the game with his bowling and changed a 190 chase to 168. But the game was still lost when Gowtham came in. 0-20 from 3 overs and 33 (11) made him my man of the match.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 22, 2018
