Boult, Chahal three-fors and Parag 54* keep Mumbai winless

Hardik Pandya's return to the Wankhede Stadium as Mumbai Indians captain was no fairytale as the five-time champions lost their third game in a row, this time with 27 balls to spare. Rajasthan Royals - led by superb performances from Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal and Riyan Parag - gave them a thorough hammering to move to No. 1 on the points table with a hat-trick of victories.

Boult left Mumbai gasping in the opening spell of the match when he dismissed Rohit Sharma, Naman Dhir and Dewald Drevis for first-ball ducks. His 3 for 22 was only matched by the 3 for 11 taken by Chahal, who controlled the middle overs to ensure Mumbai did not stage a batting comeback.

Chasing 126, Parag shepherded Royals' chase and dragged them out of some early trouble. He finished the game with six, six and four to stay unbeaten on 54 to take the No. 1 spot on the orange cap leaderboard.

Former Mumbai captain Rohit was supposed to be the crowd favourite at this venue, but his time with the bat lasted only one ball when Boult got a ball to swing away from the right-hand batter and edge it behind. Next ball, Boult swung it the other way, getting a full ball to nip into Dhir.

With two wickets gone inside the game's first six balls, Mumbai brought in Impact Player Brevis in the second over itself, but he too fell prey to the ball angling across, edging it to Nandre Burger at short third.

With three wickets in his first eight deliveries of the game, Boult gave Royals an advantage that they never let go. He finished with 3 for 22.

After Boult's searing opening spell, fellow left-arm seamer Burger got in on the action. Playing as a replacement for the injured Sandeep Sharma, Burger came around the wicket to pick off Ishan Kishan with a length ball that angled away and took his edge.

With Mumbai 20 for 4 in 3.3 overs, the No. 5 Tilak Verma and the No. 6 Hardik then aimed to build a recovery for the hosts, almost succeeding with a 56-run fifth-wicket stand, but Chahal's dismissals of both batters snuffed out any chance of a comeback.

After hitting six boundaries early in his innings, Hardik fell on 34 when he holed out at mid-on trying to hit Chahal. Tilak was sent packing on 32 soon after when Chahal's googly was edged to R Ashwin at short third.

Chahal would finish his spell with the wicket of Gerald Coetzee too late in the first innings. In all, sixteen of Chahal's 24 deliveries were dots, and his four-over spell ended with an economy of only 2.75.

A late wicket for Avesh Khan and a second scalp for Burger ensured Mumbai finished on 125, a score too low on a surface that is traditionally batting-friendly.

Only wickets could save Mumbai in the chase, and they played their trump card early when Jasprit Bumrah shared the new ball, with Kwena Maphaka, for the first time this season.

But even though Bumrah bowled three of the six powerplay overs, the Royals batters did not give a wicket away to him. Yashasvi Jaiswal fell to teenager Maphaka while the other three wickets went to Akash Madhwal, playing his first game of IPL 2024.

Madhwal struck with the second ball of his spell when he got Sanju Samson to chop a shot onto his stumps, and added a second when Jos Buttler pulled him to fine leg. He would then add a third when R Ashwin would fall in the 13th over and was the standout bowler in Mumbai's loss with his figures of 3 for 20.

He walked in ranked No. 5 on the orange-cap list and finished the day with the cap firmly on his head. With no real scoreboard pressure on this occasion, the No. 4 Parag played risk-free cricket early on, but tore into Coetzee's bowling with four fours and two sixes off the bowler.

It all started with back-to-back boundaries off Coetzee in the eighth over, followed by another lofted four over cover in the 11th. He then smoked Bumrah through mid-off in the 14th over before depositing Piyush Chawla over long-on in the 15th.

With the game almost decided, Parag put the finishing touches by hammering Coetzee in the 16th over for six, six, and four. He started the over by clubbing a six over cover and next ball reached his half-century with a slog through midwicket. The winning runs flew over wicketkeeper Kishan to the boundary to send Royals and Mumbai to opposite ends of the points-table spectrum.