CHENNAI: Riyan Parag's fine form with the bat continued again to help Rajasthan Royals win their third consecutive match of the Indian Premier League at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Trent Boult and Yuzvendra Chahal took three wickets for Rajasthan as they registered a dominating win by six wickets to reach the top of the points table on Monday.
Parag walked in with two wickets, Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and captain Sanju Samson, down inside the powerplay. Even while chasing the small total, Parag was cautious in his approach in the beginning. Akash Madhwal's pace made life hard for Rajasthan batters as he took the wicket of Jos Buttler for 13. Parag then welcomed Gerald Coetzee with two boundaries in the over. Ravichandran Ashwin stood by Parag as the duo handled the trick period in the middle overs with a calm head. Once Madhwal came back for his final over, he removed Ashwin for 16, but it was a little late.
The Assam batter gave the necessary respect to Jasprit Bumrah's deliveries when needed but went after Piyush Chawla and Coetzee to reach his second half century of the season, at the same time sealing the third win of the season by six wickets.
Earlier, 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. 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 captain Hardik Pandya tried the revival of Mumbai innings with 26 runs coming off the last two overs of powerplay. Verma took a cautious approach while Pandya was the aggressor. Even the introduction of spin from both ends with 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.
Mumbai struggled to gain momentum once Pandya's wicket fell and scored 125 runs in the first innings.
Brief score: Mumbai Indians 125/9 on 20 overs (Tilak Verma 34; Yuzvendra Chahal 3/11, Trent Boult 3/22) beat Rajasthan Royals 127/4 in 15.3 overs (Riyan Parag 54 n.o; Akash Madhwal 3/20)
