Their biggest victory for Mumbai Indians was against KKR in 2008 where they won with 87 balls to spare, yesterday they won by 70 balls to spare.

It was a good toss to win for Mumbai. They didn’t allow the batsmen on the stroke making on the difficult pitch. Although MI grabs lifeline, but, if the Knight Riders beat the Royals on the 54th match, Mumbai Indians will almost certainly be knocked out because of their poor net run-rate.

A week ago Ishan Kishan had almost been in tears when Virat Kohli offered some consolation for  not being able to show his actual colors, accumulating a mere 107 runs from eight matches in this IPL. On Thursday, Ishan Kishan came into limelight again getting the best strike of 200.

The wicketkeeper-batsman de Kock returned to the side after two matches and immediately proved that a break can work wonders. Opening the innings with Rohit Sharma against Rajasthan Royals, Kishan remained unbeaten on 50 off 25 balls with 3 sixes and 5 fours to reach the 91-run target in 8.2 overs. More than the win, his innings went a long way in improving Mumbai Indians’ net run-rate, although a bit difficult to qualify for the playoffs. Most of the Royals batsmen lost their wickets over big shots, and as a result, they crawled to 50/5 after 10 overs. Nathan Coulter-Nile’s(4/14) bewildering accomplishment got him the Man of the Match for yesterday’s play. And not to forget, Jimmy Neesham (3/12) also gave a noticeable performance. 

The Royals need someone to come to their rescue but none have proved equal to the task yet. Rajasthan Royals will now have to look forward with optimism to their final league match against Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday.