Jaipur: Sandeep Sharma grabbed his maiden five-wicket haul in the IPL to help Rajasthan Royals restrict Mumbai Indians to 179/9 after Yuzvendra Chahal entered history books with 200 dismissals in their clash here on Monday.
Coming back after an injury layoff, Sandeep (5/18) claimed three of his five wickets in a terrific final over while also accounting for Tilak Varma, whose 45-ball 65 (4x4s, 3x6s) lifted MI from a precarious position.
With their top-order blown away without any resistance for the second time this season by Rajasthan, MI were struggling at 52/4 at one stage.
But Varma and Nehal Wadhera (49) fought their way through adversity to deliver the goods for Mumbai Indians, putting on 99 runs for the fifth wicket at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.
However, MI lost wickets in heap on either side of their fifth-wicket stand to post the lowest total for all teams batting first at this venue in this season.
Varma produced his second fifty of the season whereas Wadhera missed out on his milestone by one run.
This was after Chahal became the first bowler in IPL history to have completed 200 wickets, accounting for Afghanistan batter Mohammad Nabi in the eighth over to reach the milestone.
Looking to get on top early on and against Trent Boult, Rohit Sharma (6) perished in the first over after skying a catch to Sanju Samson.
MI slipped further when comeback man Sandeep had Ishan Kishan (0) edging one behind to Samson, with the RR skipper getting the decision overturned in his favour via DRS.
Kishan was guilty of playing away from the body without any movement of the feet as the ball took the edge to settle in Samson’s gloves.
Sandeep created further issues for MI when he took out Suryakumar Yadav (10) from the equation, getting him caught by Rovman Powell.
Suryakumar began well but was a tad early into his shot on this occasion, with an edge flying to Powell at mid-on.
Nabi tried to counterattack with a brisk start, which helped him move quickly to 23 with two fours and a six off 17 balls, but Chahal got the better of the Afghan batter.
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