IPL 2021: Quinton de Kock's innings gets Mumbai Indians a 7-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals

Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, and Shivam Dube's efforts in vain as Quinton de Kock's unbeaten 70 gets Mumbai Indians (MI) a 7-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.

The Rajasthan franchise posted a score of 171 and lost 4 wickets in the allotted 20 overs in the 24th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.

Mumbai Indians had started slowly as Jaydev Unadkat and Chetan Sakariya bowled the first two overs very well. MI skipper Rohit Sharma (14 off 17 balls) was sent back by Chris Morris in what was a pretty soft dismissal.

The dismissal of Rohit, however, did not much effect as the duo of De Kock and Suryamkumar Yadav (SKY) smashed four boundaries in seven balls.

SKY was looking in imperious touch, so Sanju Samson brought Morris back to the attack. The all-rounder did the job as the right-hander, hit the ball straight to Buttler at short midwicket.

Still, there was nothing stopping De Kock as the South African continued to smash the Rajasthan Royals bowling attack. De Kock even racked up his first half-century of the season in 35 balls in the 12th over.

The batsman along with Krunal Pandya - who was promoted to No.4 - were going strong. Rajasthan Royals who were in desperate need of a breakthrough.

Mustafizur Rahman was then sent in to knock over Pandya [39 off 26] in the 17th over, but it was a little too late as Quinton de Kock and Kieron Pollard helped Mumbai Indians pick up their third win of the season.

Earlier batting first, Rajasthan Royals got off to an indifferent start as Samson (42), Buttler (41), and Dube (35) got most of the runs but could not keep a target enough to defend again Mumbai. 

In the 7th over, Rahul Chahar bowled a long-hop and Buttler obliged by rocking back on the backfoot and pulling him over deep midwicket for a six. Chahar, however, came back and on the very next ball got Butler out. 

Samson came and smashed three fours in his first six balls and he was backed by Jaiswal. However, once again Chahar got the wicket of the young opener.

Following the dismissal of Jaiswal, Rajasthan had sent Shivam Dube (35 off 31 balls) ahead of David Miller and surely the move backfired as Dube failed to keep the scoreboard ticking.

He scored just 24 runs off his first 21 deliveries and Rajasthan desperately needed Dube to switch gears. Bumrah in the 17th over gave away just 5 runs.

Samson's knock of 27-ball 42 came to an end in the next over by a yorker by Trent Boult. Dube smoked a six off Boult to end the 18th over but Bumrah brought his downfall.

Rajasthan Royals' David Miller and Riyan Parag took 12 runs off the final over to take the score to 4/171.