Rajasthan Royals’ Sandeep Sharma returned from injury in grand style, picking up a five-wicket haul, to restrict Mumbai Indians to 179 in its IPL 2024 encounter at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on April 22.
Returning to the playing XI for the first time in almost a month, Sandeep showed no signs of rustiness as he delivered match figures of 5/18 in his four overs, his best in T20 cricket.
Mumbai Indians got off to another torrid PowerPlay start, similar to the reverse fixture at the Wankhede earlier in the season. Rohit Sharma, was the first to fall, mistiming his attempted lofted shot, handing Trent Boult his 26th first-over wicket in the IPL - the most for any bowler.
Sandeep opened the bowling from the other end and quickly accounted for Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav. Suryakumar was caught unaware by a smart field change from Samson, positioning Rovman Powell at long-on, with the batter finding him perfectly with his attempted leg-side flick.
MI sent in Mohammed Nabi at five, trying to counter-attack and the Afghan all-rounder took down Avesh Khan for 18 runs in the last over of the powerplay. The cameo was short-lived as the 39-year-old was Yuzvendra Chahal’s 200th IPL victim, providing a simple return catch.
The onus was now on Mumbai’s two young southpaws, Tilak Varma and Nehal Wadhera, to take the team to a challenging total.
Wadhera, playing his first match of the season, was the more attacking among the two, getting off the mark with a sweep past fine-leg off R. Ashwin. The duo rotated strike regularly, punishing the occasional bad balls to the boundary, bringing up the fifty-partnership in 34 balls.
The pair took down Avesh for 19 in his second over and continued the merry-making against Chahal, scoring 20 off the 16th -- Tilak completing his 38-ball fifty in the process.
Wadhera fell to Boult, one short of his fifty, bringing the flourishing partnership to a halt at 99 runs.
After Avesh kept things tight in the 19th over, Sandeep returned to pick up three wickets in the last over to restrict Mumbai to a below-par total.
Scoreboard
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma c Samson b Boult 6 Ishan Kishan c Samson b Sandeep 0 Suryakumar Yadav c Powell b Sandeep 10 Tilak Varma c Powell b Sandeep 65 Mohammad Nabi c&b Yuzvendra Chahal 23 Nehal Wadhera c Sandeep b Boult 49 Hardik Pandya lbw Avesh 10 Tim David c Parag b Sandeep 3 Gerald Coetzee c Hetmyer b Sandeep 0 Piyush Chawla not out 1 Jasprit Bumrah not out 2 Extras: 10 (lb-1, w-9)
Total: 179 for 9 in 20 overs
Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-6, 3-20, 4-52, 5-151, 6-170, 7-176, 8-176, 9-177
Rajasthan Royals bowling: Trent Boult 4-0-32-2, Sandeep Sharma 4-0-18-5, Avesh Khan 4-0-49-1, Ravichandran Ashwin 4-0-31-0, Yuzvendra Chahal 4-0-48-1.
