Mumbai Indians (MI), the five-time champions, in their worst season yet in the Indian Premier League (IPL) are still not the ones to be easily rolled over and they showed on Saturday as beat the Rajasthan Royals (RR), one of the contenders to register their first win of the tournament.
MI may not be able to qualify for the playoffs as they will get to a maximum of 12 points even if they win all their remaining games, which will not be enough. However, as skipper, Rohit Sharma mentioned after the match this win was for the fans of the five-time champions, who have been with the team through thick and thin.
MI’s new recruit, Jofra Archer too was overjoyed with the result as the Men in Blue finally opened their account in the 15th edition of the cash-rich league. “Off the mark boyssssssss,” Archer tweeted after MI’s maiden win of the competition
Archer, who was released by the Royals ahead of the mega auction, has been nursing his elbow, as he had to go through a couple of surgeries due to a persistent issue. Archer hasn’t played international cricket since March 2021 and missed the last year’s IPL as well due to the same problem. However, despite all of this he registered his name for the mega auction even though he wasn’t going to take part in IPL 2022.
MI, RR and Sunrisers Hyderabad went after Archer in the auction with the five-time champions prevailing in the end and signing him for INR 8 crore. The prospect of Archer and Jasprit Bumrah bowling together looks exciting and MI will hope that he returns fully fit next year.
On the other hand, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma, the two most consistent players for MI this year continued their superb form and timed the chase to perfection, even though both fell in quick succession. Surya scored 51 while Tilak played a measured knock of 35 as Tim David provided the finishing touches.
