Defending champions Mumbai Indians were able to rediscover their lost touch against the Rajasthan Royals on Thursday’s afternoon clash of the 2021 IPL season.

Mumbai bounce back with a convincing 7-wicket win

Bowling first, the Mumbai bowling lineup did well to restrict the hard-hitting likes of Jos Buttler (41) and Sanju Samson (42) on a good Arun Jaitley Stadium pitch. None of the Rajasthan batsmen was able to cross 50; and while Shivam Dube (35 off 31) and Yashaswi Jaiswal (32 off 20) played some impressive cameos; their inability to score big hurt RR’s cause.

Chasing 172, Mumbai had a few hiccups early on in their effort as they lost captain Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav inside the powerplay. But a resurging Quinton de Kock blasted his way to an impressive 50-ball 70, ensuring MI always had an anchor batsman on the crease. Krunal Pandya, batting up the order at number four, provided Quinny with the ideal foil with a crucial 39 off 26-balls. Mumbai finished the game inside 19 overs, picking up 2 crucial points and climbing to number 4 on the points table.

In a semi-low-scoring match like that one; it’s only fair that a bowler manages to feature on the highlights reel. That’s why we’ve got Mumbai’s Rahul Chahar up here today; although not quite for the reasons you might expect.

Angry Rahul Chahar sends off Yashaswi Jaiswal with a sly leg-break

The Bharatpur-based leggie played a big part in Mumbai’s win, picking up 2/33 with the ball. Moreover, his wickets arrived right before the likes of Buttler and Jaiswal could explode and snatch the game away from them.

But Chahar’s reaction to the dismissal of Yashaswi Jaiswal bears a special mention. Bowling the 10th over, Rahul had just conceded a maximum of the young Rajasthan opener’s bat in his previous delivery.

So for his next ball, Chahar lobbed a well-executed leg-spinner that produced a leading edge of Yashaswi’s willow. The ball flew off in the air, and Rahul made a quick shuffle to his left to inflict a stunning caught-and-bowled display.

But what made the wicket even more iconic was Rahul’s fiery send-off to Jaiswal. The on-field cameras couldn’t capture exactly what he said: but Rahul’s animated reaction made it clear that he had used sledged the young Rajasthan opener in some way or another. Although he wasn’t charged with any accusations either, so maybe the umpires just let this one slide. Anyways, here’s the video of Rahul’s flared-up wicket:

https://twitter.com/lodulalit001/status/1387723423036547076?s=19

Brief scores: Mumbai 172/3(Q de Kock 70*, K Pandya 39, R Chahar 2/33) defeated Rajasthan (S Samson 42, J Buttler 41, C Morris 2/33) by 7 wickets