IPL 2021: Quinton de Kock's brilliance hands Mumbai Indians 7-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals

This is the 14th edition of the profitable Indian Premier League, presently being held in India. Mumbai Indians is the five-time defending champion under Rohit Sharma. Rajasthan Royals has not proved itself as a title contender since its 2008 title win.

Defending champion Mumbai Indians produced a stellar show with the bat to outclass former champion Rajasthan Royals in Match 24 of the 2021 Indian Premier League at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Thursday. Wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock's unbeaten knock of 70 played a handy role in helping MI get back to winning ways while RR's woes continued.

Winning the toss, MI skipper Rohit Sharma elected to bowl first and made a change, bringing in pacer Nathan Coulter-Nile for wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan. As the RR openers came out to bat, it was an intelligent approach, as the two played in a watchful manner but attacked the loose deliveries.

MI had to wait until the eighth over to get the opening breakthrough, as spinner Rahul Chahar got rid of Buttler after being stumped, thus ending the 66-run opening stand. It was 25 runs later that Jaiswal was caught and bowled by the same man in the tenth over.

Nevertheless, Samson and all-rounder, Shivam Dube took charge and contributed to a 57-run stand for the third wicket. In the 18th, a perfect yorker from pacer Trent Boult knocked over Samson for 42, as the score read 148/3.

While Dube seemed to be going good, he fell for 35 just ten runs after being caught and bowled by pacer Jasprit Bumrah in the 19th over. With two new batsmen in the crease, RR still managed to post a decent total of 171/4.

For MI, six bowlers were utilised. While Chahar had the most success, Bumrah became highly economical.

As MI came out to bat, it was going steady before losing the opening wicket in the final ball of the powerplay, with Rohit falling for 14 to pacer Chris Morris at 49. It was then followed by a 34-run stand between fellow opener Quinton de Kock and Suryakumar Yadav as the latter departed for 16 to the same man in the tenth over.

Nevertheless, de Kock was in from, as he brought up his 15th IPL half-century in the process. While things were going good between him and all-rounder Krunal Pandya, after a 63-run stand, the latter was cleaned up by pacer Mustafizur Rahman, at 146, in the 17th over.

However, the pair of de Kock and Kieron Pollard comfortably saw things through with nine balls to spare. Meanwhile, six bowlers were pressed into the attack for RR, with Morris being the most effective, while Dube and pacer Chetan Sakariya were the most economical.
Brief scores: RR 171/4 (Buttler- 41, Jaiswal- 32, Samson- 42, Dube- 35; Chahar- 2/33) lost to MI 172/3 in 18.3 overs (De Kock- 70*, Krunal- 39; Morris- 2/33) by seven wickets.

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