Mumbai put on a stout batting display complemented by a stellar performance with the ball to cruise to a 57-run win over Rajasthan.
Here are some of the key talking points:
Super Suryakumar
While Mumbai's top order performed decently enough, it was No. 3 batsman Suryakumar Yadav who truly anchored his side's innings and eventually saw them through to a score of 193/4.
| Suryakumar Yadav vs Rajasthan, October 6, 2020 | |||||||
| Overs | RUNS | BALLS | FOURS | SIXES | BOUNDARIES | STRIKE RATE | BALLS PER BOUNDARY |
| 1-6 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 120 | 5 |
| 7-15 | 40 | 27 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 148.1 | 4.5 |
| 16-20 | 33 | 15 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 220 | 2.5 |
Coming in to bat following Quinton de Kock's dismissal with the score at 49/1, Suryakumar Yadav got off to a gentle start, avoiding the early pitfalls that the likes of Ishan Kishan and Krunal Pandya failed to avoid. Methodically stepping up his game over-by-over, as shown above, his charge was not to be halted on the night. Despite a nasty knock to the head courtesy of a Jofra Archer beamer on the first ball of the 18th over, 'SKY' kept on trucking, playing a variety of strokes to net 68 runs in the last five overs and finish with a personal series-best unbeaten 79 off 47, peppered with 11 boundaries and a pair of sixes.
Bumrah at his best
Jasprit Bumrah proved his calibre once again, with figures of 4-20 on the night - his best bowling figures ever in the Indian T20 League and T20Is as well, and also the best spell in the 2020 season thus far. Bumrah started with bagging the prized scalp of Rajasthan skipper Steve Smith in just the second over. He then went on to clean up Rajasthan's tail, taking out Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tewatia and Ankit Rajpoot in the last quarter of the innings to end their night with nearly two overs to spare.
Jos Buttler's lone stand
With Rajasthan's batting order falling like a house of cards during an earthquake, it was only Jos Buttler who possessed some semblance of stability and looked to be on course to steer his side back on track. The Englishman whose batting average against Mumbai was his highest against any Indian T20 League side heading into the match, produced a solid knock, pounding away four boundaries and five maximums. Along the way, he completed 6000 runs in T20s, before falling prey to an incredible catch by Kieron Pollard. Buttler's contribution was underscored by the fact that he scored 71.42% of Rajasthan's runs on the night while he was at the crease.
Kieron Pollard's 'hot potato' catch
While Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah were Mumbai's star performers in this match, it was Kieron Pollard's incredible catch of Jos Buttler that garnered the most fanfare. Buttler was slowly picking up the pieces left behind on the trail of destruction of their batting order and getting their game back on track. However, after Buttler tried to send a James Pattinson delivery over long-on, Kieron shuffled around and leapt in the air, clutching the ball with his right hand momentarily before it seemed to be heading back to the ground only for his left hand to get in position and save the day.
Feature image courtesy: Twitter.com / Indian T20 League
