Suryakumar Yadav smashed an unbeaten 79 off 47 balls to fire Mumbai Indians to an imposing 193 for four against Rajasthan Royals in an IPL contest in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
Mumbai suffered a mini middle-order collapse after a good start but late-hitting from Yadav and Hardik Pandya (30 not out off 19) enabled the defending champions to amass 51 runs in the last three overs.
The two shared 76 runs for the unbroken fifth wicket stand.
Opting to bat, openers Rohit Sharma (35 off 23) and Quinton De Kock (23 off 15 balls) forged a quickfire 49-run stand.
Mumbai amassed 15 runs in the third over off Ankit Rajpoot, the highlight of it being Rohit launching one into the orbit over the bowler’s head.
Debutant pacer Karthik Tyagi (1/36) removed De Kock in his very first over to provide the much needed breakthrough.
Yadav at the other end smashed Tyagi for three boundaries in ninth over. His innings comprised 11 fours and two sixes.
However, leggie Shreyas Gopal (2/28) struck twice in as many balls removing Rohit and Ishan Kishan (0) to leave Mumbai at 88 for three in the 10th over.
While Rohit gave a sitter to Rahul Tewatia at long-on, Sanju Samson took a running catch at extra-cover to send Kishan back.
Yadav kept playing his shots and scored successive boundaries off Gopal in the 12th over. It became 117 for four after Krunal Pandya fell cheaply.
Yadav, however, kept launching into the RR attack with great gusto and was particularly brutal on Tom Curran (0/33) in the 18th over that went for 19 runs.
He was ably supported by Hardik, who produced a timely cameo.
Scorecard
Mumbai Indians Innings: Quinton de Kock c Buttler b Tyagi 23; Rohit Sharma c Tewatia b Gopal 35; Suryakumar Yadav not out 79; Ishan Kishan c Samson b Gopal 0; Krunal Pandya c Gopal b Archer 12; Hardik Pandya not out 30. Extras: (B-5 LB-2 W-5 NB-2) 14
Total: (For 4 wickets in 20 overs) 193
Fall of Wickets: 1/49 2/88 3/88 4/117
Rajasthan Royals bowling: Ankit Rajpoot 3-0-42-0, Shreyas Gopal 4-0-28-2, Jofra Archer 4-0-34-1, Kartik Tyagi 4-0-36-1, Tom Curran 3-0-33-0, Rahul Tewatia 2-0-13-0.