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Collective performance powers us to first win of the season

By Mumbai Indians

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Suryakumar Yadav’s fifty, an early Ishan Kishan blitz, Tilak Varma’s timely knock and Tim David’s big hits landed us our first victory of Tata IPL 2022 after chasing down 159.

Captain Hitman called right at the toss on his birthday and chose to bowl. Our new-ball bowlers Daniel Sams and Jasprit Bumrah began very well, keeping RR openers Jos Buttler and Devdutt Padikkal to 26 in four overs.

The first breakthrough came from young Hrithik Shokeen, who struck in his first over to dismiss Padikkal after deceiving him in flight.

Debutant Kumar Kartikeya Singh then also had a dream start, picking up opposing skipper Sanju Samson off just his second ball.

Buttler and Daryl Mitchell then shared a stand but our bowlers kept them in check, not giving them any boundaries for four overs between the 10th and 14th overs.

Sams then dismissed Mitchell and Buttler hit four sixes off Shokeen to bring up his fifty before being caught off the final ball in the same over.

Riyan Parag also fell early but a cameo from Ravichandran Ashwin took RR to 158/6 on a slow surface.

In response, our openers - birthday boy Ro and Pocket Dynamo Ishan Kishan - got us off to a rapid start, with Ishan taking up the role of the aggressor.

The Pocket Dynamo hit a six and a four in the first over and followed it up with two boundaries in the next. Ro then fell attempting a big hit off Ashwin.

Ishan then hit one more boundary before being dismissed for an explosive 18-ball 26.

Tilak joined Surya in the middle and the duo took 20 runs off a Mitchell over to regain the momentum in the chase after two wickets.

The duo knocked it around to build a partnership, only hitting the occasional boundary and played the ball on merit on a sluggish surface. They shared an 80-run stand as SKY soon brought up a well-made fifty with a six off the dangerous Ashwin.

SKY then fell attempting a big hit off Yuzvendra Chahal and Tilak also fell in the next over.

However, Tim David, coming back into the team after six matches, got into the act straightaway, hitting a big one off Chahal and following it up with two boundaries off Kuldeep Sen.

The well-timed chase meant that we needed four runs in the final over and though Polly fell in the first ball, Sams walked in and pulled one into the stands to get us to our first victory!

SKY won the ‘Player of the Match’ award for his third half-century of the season.

“I’ll definitely take this - this is how we play and our real potential came out today. We kept taking wickets, which made it difficult for them,” Rohit summarised the win at the post-match presentation.

“We wanted to try a lot of things but it’s not easy when you have a season like this. The conditions were different here - the ball grips more here while the pitches are flat at other venues. We were never blown away by any opposition,” he added.

“We played very well - the bowlers came together, the batters did the job as well.”

We missed that winning feeling, Paltan and as they say, better late than never!