"Just learn from the mistakes. Morning will come tomorrow, sun will rise, prepare well for the next game." 💙

Words of wisdom from our captain, Hardik Pandya, as after all the rain and the waiting, we had a night to forget in Guwahati. All us Paltan kept saying during the Rajasthan Royals versus Mumbai Indians clash was… keep the rain away, let us have a game today. At one stage it looked as if the rain refused to stop and the waiting game continued for a long period. Ultimately, we witnessed a 11-overs-a-side contest with 3.2 overs of powerplay with a lot of drama, turns, dips and a whole lot of boundaries and maximums.  

Put into bat first, Rajasthan Royals notched up a massive 150/3 in their 11 overs courtesy brilliant knocks from Yashasvi Jaiwal (77*) and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (39). Allah Ghazanfar picked (2/21) in his 2 overs while Shardul Thakur snapped (1/36). In reply, Mumbai Indians ended with 123/9 in 11 overs.

Jaiswal-Sooryavanshi’s prime partnership sets the tone for RR

RR openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Suryavanshi got their team off to a flier as they stitched an 80-run opening stand amongst themselves. Eventually the former remained not out on 77(32) while Vaibhav departed for 39(14). Credit where credit is due, they were simply too good. 

HP’s controlled show with the ball 👏

MI skipper Kung-fu Pandya bowled well in his 2 overs, giving away 17 runs with an economy of just 8.5 when all the other bowlers were going for massive runs at the other end. He started off his spell by awarding RR just 4 runs in his first over. He kept it simple with pace off and his length was the key.

Tilak’s impeccable fielding 💥

Our very own TV was outstanding in the field, grabbing the catch of inform Vaibhav. The full wide slot delivery was smashed hard, but Tilak kept his eyes on the ball till the last minute, held his balance, and jumped in the air to take a stunning catch. He also snapped up the catch of RR skipper Riyan Parag due to his good judgment in the field.

Allah Ghazanfar strikes twice in his two overs to keep MI alive

Ghazanfar snapped the key wickets of Dhruv Jurel who was judged LBW and Riyan Parag picking 2/21 in his 2 overs. But RR finished off their innings strongly with 150/3 in 11 overs.

Early blows hurt MI ☹️

The men in blue and gold faced a top order collapse as none of the batters were able to get big runs on the board. Ravi Bishnoi picked key wickets of Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya. Scoreboard pressure eventually got the better of MI batters.

Rutherford-Naman keep us alive with breezy cameos 👊

Rutherford looked good in the middle smashing 25(8), with 2 fours and 2 sixes, SR-312.5 while Naman added 25(13), aced with 3 fours and 1 six. Both together stitched a 47 runs partnership. 💪 Possibly if both had stuck on till the end, the result could have been different. 

RR eventually won by 27 runs. It was one of those games where the run rate kept getting higher and momentum kept slipping away from MI. Yes, this was not our night Paltan, but the story is not over. We will come back stronger in the next game. We come back to our fortress, the Wankhede and we come back to our winning ways! 💙

Brief Scores: Rajasthan Royals 150/3 in 11 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 77*, Vaibhav Suryavanshi 39; Allah Ghazanfar 2/21) BEAT Mumbai Indians 123/9 in 11 overs (Naman Dhir 25, Sherfane Rutherford 25; Ravi Bishnoi 2/25, Nandre Burger 2/21, Sandeep Sharma 2/26) by 27 runs.