CHENNAI: Trent Boult and Yuzvendra Chahal took three wickets apiece as Rajasthan Royals restricted Mumbai Indians to 125 in Mumbai.
Trying to continue their winning momentum, Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson won the toss and opted to bat first at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai Indians' first home match. The homecoming didn't start particularly well for the former Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma. Samson dived to his right to pouch a catch off Boult to silence the crowd in the first over.
Naman Dhir was trapped in front first ball to reduce Mumbai to two for one in the first over. Ishan Kishan tried to show his intentions with a six and a four in Nandre Bueger's first over. However, Boult picked his third wicket when Burger took a sharp catch to send Dewald Brevis back for a duck. Kishan followed suit in the next over when Samson took another catch behind the stumps to reduce Mumbai to 20 for four after four overs.
From that dire state Tilak Verma and Pandya tried to revive the Mumbai innings with 26 runs coming off the last two overs of powerplay. Verma took a cautious approach while Pandya was the aggressor of the two. Even the introduction of spin from both ends with Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin did not stop the determined duo at first as they added 56 runs in 36 balls.
Pandya tried to put his foot on the accelerator against Chahal, but that became his undoing when the allrounder tried to hit over the long-on boundary, only to find substitute fielder Rovman Powell.
The procession of wickets followed when Piyush Chawla and Verma departed soon after the captain's wicket. Mumbai batters struggled to hit boundaries and one came off Tim David's bat after the gap of six overs.
Mumbai kept David back to make the most of his strike rate in the death overs, but he did not get any help from the other batters and the Australian struggled to score, being caught by Boult in the penultimate over.
Brief score: 125/9 on 20 overs (Tilak Verma 34; Yuzvendra Chahal 3/11, Tremt Boult 3/22) vs Mumbai Indians