Mumbai Indians continued their stunning turnaround in fortunes with a sixth successive victory in IPL 2025, one that put them clear of Royal Challengers Bangalore at the top of the points table courtesy the best net run rate of all ten teams.
Their latest vanquished opponents were hosts Rajasthan Royals, who in front of a packed Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Thursday evening – which included a large British travelling fan base, among them the former England football coach Gareth Southgate – lost by 100 runs to bow out of the IPL playoffs race.
Chasing a target of 218, RR slipped to 47/5 and eventually lost their tenth wicket in the 17th over, when the innings top-scorer Jofra Archer (30) was well held by Jasprit Bumrah at short fine leg to hand former RR strike bowler Trent Boult his third wicket of the night.
Mumbai posted 217/2 in another dominant batting effort, headlined by a century opening stand between Rohit Sharma (53) and Ryan Rickleton (61) before the pair of Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya smashed identical scores of 48 not out from 23 balls in a 94-run stand off just 44 deliveries.
Rajasthan’s teenaged batting prodigy, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, went from zero to hero after bagging a two-ball duck which set in motion a very poor effort from the home team. Suryavanshi’s dismissal was followed by wicket after wicket against a top-notch bowling attack, with RR eventually all out for 117.
Yashasvi Jaiswal (13), Nitish Rana (9), Riyan Parag (16) and Shimron Hetmyer (0) were all back in the dugout before the fifth over was completed, and only Archer’s slogging got RR past the 100-run mark.
Boult (3/28) and Bumrah (2/15) were too hot to handle, and MI’s Impact Player Karn Sharma grabbed 3/23 in another superb performance.
Rajasthan now move to Kolkata to face the desperate Kolkata Knight Riders, while table-toppers MI go home to face Gujarat Titans.
