IPL 2018, MI vs RR: 4 Reasons why Mumbai lost against Rajasthan
It was a crunch clash between the Rajasthan Royals and the Mumbai Indians as both teams looked to continue their winning run and push for the playoffs spot. Both the teams were level on points before today’s game. Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and elected to field first. Mumbai got off to a good start courtesy of some sloppy fielding from Rajasthan.
Mumbai were 86/0 at the end of the first 10 overs and looked set to score in excess of 180 but an exceptional comeback by the Royals' bowlers pegged things back and restricted Mumbai for just 168 runs.
In reply, Rajasthan lost D’arcy Short in the very first over but Jos Buttler continued in his rich vein of form and forged a good partnership with Ajinkya Rahane. Buttler batted like a man possessed and smashed his 5th consecutive fifty of this year’s IPL. The Royals romped home with 12 balls to spare. Let us have a look at the 4 reasons why Mumbai lost.
#1 Failure to capitalize on a good start
Mumbai got off to an excellent start courtesy of a big opening partnership between Evin Lewis and Suryakumar Yadav. The duo laid a solid platform for the middle order by adding 86 runs off the first 10 overs. Mumbai looked set to score in excess of 190 but a remarkable comeback by Rajasthan’s bowlers applied the brakes on the scoring rate.
Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer bowled some tight overs between them and got some good support from Jaydev Unadkat as Mumbai kept losing wickets at regular intervals and could only manage to score 168 runs off their allotted overs.