Mumbai Indians (MI) claimed a dominant win over Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Match 50 of the ongoing IPL 2025, at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, on Thursday, May 1. After losing 4 of their first 5 games, MI claimed their sixth consecutive win in the ongoing season. A great batting performance, coupled with a collectively great bowling performance, helped MI to claim victory to top the points table.
Talking Points
1. Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton’s opening partnership
MI batted first and posted 217 runs on the board in Jaipur. It was possible due to their top 4 batters, all of whom stepped up and batted well. It started with the openers, who put on a show and posted 116 runs for the first wicket. While Rohit Sharma scored the third fifty in his last four innings, Rickelton was impressive with his 61(38). The duo laid a great platform for the batters after them to continue the momentum.
2. Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya’s identical scores
Rickelton and Rohit’s batting performance did not go in vain, as Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya continued the momentum well. While Suryakumar accelerated well in the middle overs and registered his 11th consecutive score of over 25 runs in the IPL 2025, Hardik finished the innings well. The duo identically scored 48 runs in 23 balls at a strike rate of 208.7 and remained unbeaten, respectively.
3. Mumbai Indians’ exceptional bowling performance
A target of 218 runs against an attack featuring Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Karn Sharma, and Corbin Bosch was going to be challenging. But the RR batters hurried to chase the big total and lost wickets in the process. Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s wicket started the collapse, which led to MI dismissing RR to a score of just 117 runs to claim a win by 100 runs.
Who Said What?
Hardik Pandya, MI (Winning Captain)
The way we batted, and we were clinical with the ball – so absolutely [a perfect game]. We could have got another 15 runs. What we were trying to speak to each other was to play percentage shots. Surya and I said there’s value for shots… Ro and Ryan batted the same way. I think it was absolutely fantastic. It is never about people getting chances; it’s about what is required in the situation. People are going back to batsmanship. As a group, the way we batted was proper batsmanship. I don’t know who all to mention [among the bowlers]. Everyone is really clear. We’re going back to simple cricket, and it’s working for that. We want to take game by game, and be humble and disciplined.
Riyan Parag, RR (Losing Captain)
You’ve got to give credit to MI for the way they batted. They kept wickets. Yeah, 190-200 would have been ideal. We’ve been getting good starts. But it’s up to the middle order – myself, Dhruv – to step up. We’ve done a lot of things right and wrong. A lot of mistakes and small errors. We want to focus on them, and focus on the good [stuff] as well.
Ryan Rickelton, Player of the Match
Awesome. I have family here as well come up this week. Really good week. It was a bit of a slow start. We’re clicking nicely as a partnership together. With the weather looming around, we were unsure. That’s probably the thing about the IPL [adapting to the conditions]. I was guilty in the first quarter of the tournament in trying to do too much. We have such a thinktank, senior players, and management group.
India
