Surya, David seal it for MI despite Yashasvi Jaiswal ton for Royals in IPL 2023 | Cricket

The kind of form he has been in this IPL season, Yashasvi Jaiswal would’ve walked into the Wankhede Stadium, on that hard and flat deck of his home city, licking his lips on Sunday. The youngster from Mumbai walked away raising his bat and helmet and bowing after elevating Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) batting display against Mumbai Indians (MI) with a sublime ton.

The left-handed opener’s 124 (62b, 16×4, 8×6) accounted for more than half the visitors’ 212/7, which still did not prove enough. MI got home with three balls and six wickets to spare after Suryakumar Yadav’s authoritative 29-ball 55 gave them wings and Tim David’s audacious 45 not out in 14 balls took them home. With 17 needed off the last over by Jason Holder, the big Australian finished it off with three consecutive sixes.

Jaiswal kicked off his first IPL century with a couple of sixes pulling and hooking, the second off Jofra Archer sailing outside the stadium. Comeback-man Archer was on the mark with his pace—two 148kph deliveries to Jaiswal stood out—but not his line to Jos Buttler who took eight balls score a run. Jaiswal made up for it, cracking Riley Meredith for four fours in one over that included some crispy drives as RR flew to 58 in five.

Piyush Chawla was instrumental in pegging the visitors back, getting Buttler to hole out and cleaning up Devdutt Padikkal off a googly while Arshad Khan sent back Sanju Samson.

By then with RR 103/3 in 11 overs, Jaiswal had brought up a 32-ball fifty. He took only 21 more for the next 50. The left-hander’s shot-making was just as enterprising, reverse-sweeping Chawla for six and dancing down for four. Thus, even as MI kept finding the breakthroughs, Jaiswal kept powering on for RR. At the death too, he punished Meredith for three consecutive fours that got him into three figures in the 18th over. He then deposited Archer for back-to-back sixes over mid-off and square leg.

The hosts’ stiff climb grew taller with the short stay of skipper Rohit Sharma, bowled in the second over off a slower one by Sandeep Sharma that cut away and left him flummoxed. Cameron Green (44, 26b) attacked Trent Boult and swept R Ashwin for six in a 58-run powerplay. Ashwin struck back, getting Ishan Kishan to hole out with a wide one and Green with a full one as MI crossed 100 in the 11th over.

Yadav came out smacking Ashwin down on one knee for six first ball, flicking and ramping away for boundaries at will thereafter. Kuldeep Sen bore the brunt of his repertoire as Yadav tore into him for 6, 4, 4, 5NB in a 20-run 13th over that also saw Tilak Varma’s LBW reversed. With 61 needed off 27, Yadav’s top edge off Boult was pulled out of thin air by Sandeep running backwards from short fine leg. David and Varma though found two boundaries every over after that before David’s three sixes sealed it.