Who won yesterday’s IPL match 2022, RR vs MI - Match 44?

The Mumbai Indians (MI) beat the Rajasthan Royals (RR) by five wickets in yesterday’s IPL match at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

Bowling first after winning the toss, MI restricted RR to 158 for 6 despite Jos Buttler’s 67. Suryakumar Yadav guided the chase with a terrific 51 off 39 balls before a cameo from Tim David (20* off 9) took Mumbai home. MI’s win on Saturday was their first in IPL 2022, coming after eight consecutive losses. Incidentally, the victory came on skipper Rohit Sharma’s 35th birthday.

Chasing 159, the under-pressure Ishan Kishan began in aggressive fashion, slashing the second ball from Trent Boult over third man for a maximum. He had a lucky escape as Yuzvendra Chahal dropped him off Prasidh Krishna’s bowling at extra cover. At the other end, skipper Rohit Sharma fell for 2 on his birthday, top-edging a sweep off Ravichandran Ashwin to square leg.

Kishan hung around for a bit after his reprieve. However, he could not convert his start and fell for 26 off 18, top-edging a pull off Boult to the keeper. Mumbai ended the powerplay on 41 off 2. Immediately after the end of the field restrictions, Sanju Samson introduced Daryl Mitchell. The move backfired as Suryakumar clubbed him for three fours while Tilak Varma lofted him for a maximum over long-off. 20 runs came off the over and pressure was back on RR.

After a few quiet overs, Suryakumar slog-swept Chahal for a six over deep square leg to kick off the 12th over. The in-form Mumbai batter brought up his fifty in grand style, lofting Ashwin over wide long-on for a maximum off the last ball of the 14th over. He perished to Chahal in the next over, mistiming a lofted stroke down the ground. Varma (35) also played a needless stroke and was caught at long-on off Krishna soon after.

The dismissal of the well-set batters put MI under some pressure, though the run rate was under control. With 35 needed off the last four overs, David smacked a flighted delivery from Chahal over long-on for a maximum. Two more fours came off his bat in the next over bowled by Kuldeep Sen as the equation came down to a run a ball.

With four needed off the last over, Kieron Pollard (10) pulled the first ball from Sen to the fielder at deep fine leg. Daniel Sams, however, came in and launched the first ball he faced over the ropes to end Mumbai’s losing streak in IPL 2022.

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MI restrict RR to 158 for 6 despite Jos Buttler's 67

Jos Buttler scored another fifty for RR. Pic: IPLT20.COM

Mumbai came up with a competent bowling performance to restrict Rajasthan to 158 for 6 after winning the toss and bowling first. Buttler (67 off 52) scored another half-century, but he scored at under a run a ball for the most part of the innings and only lifted his strike rate towards the end of his knock. Most of the other Rajasthan batters struggled on a surface that didn’t seem easy to score on. It needed a cameo from Ravichandran Ashwin (21 off 9) to take RR past 150.

Devdutt Padikkal looked in good form at the start of the innings, striking three consecutive fours off Sams in the third over. His innings did not last long though as he sliced Hrithik Shokeen to long-off, having made 15. Buttler helped himself to a couple of boundaries in the over. Sanju Samson also came in and slapped the young off-spinner for two sixes. However, like Padikkal, his stay was also brief. On 16, he upper-cut leggie Kumar Kartikeya straight to deep point.

Mitchell struggled to get going for the second match in a row and fell for 17 off 20, top-edging a Sams off-cutter to extra cover. By this time Buttler’s innings had also lost rhythm. He thus decided to go all-out when Shokeen was reintroduced in the 16th over. He clobbered the first four balls for sixes, the second of which brought up his fifty off 48 balls. The young spinner had his man off the last ball of the over as Buttler miscued his big hit and was caught at long-off.

After Riyan Parag (3) perished cheaply, Ashwin took on Riley Meredith and Jasprit Bumrah and hit a few crunching boundaries. He gloved a slower bouncer from Meredith to the keeper off the first of the last over, which produced only three.

Shimron Hetmyer’s (6* off 14) inability to get going summed up RR’s struggles.

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IPL 2022, RR vs MI: Who won Man of the Match yesterday?

Buttler scored yet another fifty for Rajasthan. This was not an easy innings as he was scoring at under a run a ball for a significant part of his knock. Ashwin played a crucial cameo and claimed the wicket of Rohit with the ball.

For Mumbai, Meredith claimed 2 for 24 while Kartikeya gave away only 19 in his four and picked up the big wicket of Samson. In the chase, Suryakumar and Varma again made impressive contributions while David played a nice cameo under pressure.

Suryakumar was named the Player of the Match for his fluent half-century.