Tim David turned the match on its head to gift Rohit Sharma a perfect birthday gift as Mumbai Indians (MI) spoil Yashasvi Jaiswal's maiden ton to rock Rajasthan Royals (RR) to win the 1000th Indian Premier League (IPL) match thriller at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday (April 30). With 17 needed off the last over, David launched three big sixes on the trot to seal the match for the five-time champions.
Riding on Jaiswal's stunning century RR posted a colossal total of 212/7. In reply, riding on Suryakumar Yadav's 55 off 29 and David's 13-ball 45 MI chased down the target with three balls and six wickets to spare.
The game began with a shaky start for MI, losing captain Rohit early on and struggling to gain momentum in the first half. Ishan Kishan showed potential but was ultimately dismissed by off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. A turning point arrived when Suryakumar Yadav fiercely attacked Kuldeep Sen, scoring 20 runs in a single over. Cameron Green and Yadav then built a crucial partnership before Yadav was taken out by Trent Boult. Tilak Varma played a helpful role near the end, but it was Tim David’s breathtaking performance that sealed the win for MI. David scored a remarkable 45 runs in just 14 balls, featuring 2 fours and 5 sixes, leading MI to victory.
For the RR, Ravichandran Ashwin stood out as the top bowler, claiming 2 wickets for 27 runs in his 4 overs. He was backed up by Trent Boult, who took a wicket but proved somewhat costly, allowing 43 runs in his 4 overs.
Earlier, Yashasvi belted his maiden ton to power RR to a huge 212/7 against Paltans in the 1,000th match of the glitzy league. Jaiswal's sublime knock of 124 off 62 balls also guided RR to their highest total against MI in the IPL.
With his cracking knock, Jaiswal smashed multiple records as he became the fourth youngest batter to score a century in the glitzy league. Now he is only behind behind Manish Pandey (19y, 253 days), Rishabh Pant (20y, 218 days) and Devdutt Padikkal (20y, 289 days) in the elite list. The Mumbaiker also holds the record for smashing the highest individual score in the IPL as an uncapped player. Jaiswal is the fifth uncapped Indian batter to score a century in the world's richest T20 league. After legendary New Zealand batter Brendon McCullum (158* in 2008), Jaiswal has become the second batter to register the highest score in an IPL match where no other teammate scored more than 20 runs. Jaiswal has also registered the highest individual score by a RR batter in the IPL. The Indian batter has surpassed Jos Buttler (124 vs SRH) to achieve the massive feat in the T20 tournament. The 21-year-old is also the leading run-getter in the IPL 2023. The Orange Cap holder has accumulated 428 runs in 9 matches.
Coming back to the match, Jaiswal cracked 16 fours and eight maximums in his incredible knock and took his tally past 400 runs in IPL 2023 to continue his rich vein of runs. Jaiswal, who didn't get much support from other RR batters, never let the run-rate dip for once. He kicked off his blitzkrieg with by pairing up with Buttler (18) for a 72-run opening stand.
Buttler took eight ball to get off the mark but Jaiswal was all guns blazing from the word go as he whacked a six each off both Cameron Green (3-0-31-0) and Jofra Archer's (4-0-41-1) first couple of overs to set the mood for RR. The eighth over saw Buttler returning back to pavilion off Piyush Chawla's ball.
RR skipper Sanju Samson (14) launched the very first ball he faced for a six but Arshad Khan (3-0-39-3) shortened his stay in the 10th over. Chawla hit back in the 11th over by getting rid of Devdutt Padikkal (2) to notch his second scalp. Later Jason Holder, Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel were dismissed by Archer, Arshad Khan and Riley Meredith but it was too late for MI as RR already posted 212 on the board.
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