IPL 2018, RR vs MI: 5 talking points
Reigning champions Mumbai Indians suffered their fourth defeat of the tournament by losing to Rajasthan Royals at Jaipur.
Batting first, MI lost Evin Lewis in the first over but Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan put them in a commanding position with their 129-run partnership.
Both players reached their fifties but following Kishan's dismissal, MI's run rate declined as none of their other batsmen could contribute much and they ended their innings at 167/7.
Rajasthan Royals lost both their openers early but a 72-run stand between Sanju Samson and Ben Stokes put them in a strong position. However, Mumbai Indians came back with a couple of quick wickets during the death overs in particular.
At this stage, K Gowtham came in and smashed a cameo of 33 from just 11 deliveries to steer the inaugural IPL champions to a much-needed win after two successive losses. RR have now moved up to 5th in the table while Mumbai Indians remain at the 7th position due to a better net run rate than bottom-placed Delhi Daredevils.
Let's take a look at five talking points from tonight's match.
#5 Mumbai Indians' middle order messed up big time
After losing Evin Lewis early, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan gave their all to put Mumbai Indians in a position where they had a good chance of posting a total around 180-190.
However, Kishan was dismissed for 58 before Yadav followed suit after scoring 72. The remainder of MI's middle order batsmen did almost nothing.
Skipper Rohit Sharma carelessly ran himself out for a golden duck while the Pandya brothers added 11 runs from 8 balls combined. Kieron Pollard's poor run with the bat persisted as he remained unbeaten at 21 from 20 balls.
The "most successful team" in IPL history could add only 32 runs in their final 5 overs which was one of the key reasons behind their defeat.