Earlier Mumbai put into bat, made a strong start, as Suryakumar Yadav and Evin Lewis compiled a century stand for the first wicket, before both fell in quick succession to Rahul Tewatia, Lewis for 48 and Yadav for 53. Ishan Kishan (44) and Rohit Sharma (18) shared a 55 run third wicket partnership, but the Mumbai innings slightly faltered towards the end, and their 194 -7 was slightly less than their supporters would have expected at one stage.
Roy led the response with help from Gautam Gambhir (15) and Rishabh Pant (47) with whom he shared 69-run second wicket partnership. Glenn Maxwell (13) and Shreyas Iyer (27 not out) helped Delhi get close to their target, but there was still 11 needed off the last over. Roy hit a four and a six off the first 2 balls, then faced three dot balls, before scrambling the single to win the game, and clinch his man-of- the-match award.
The second match on Saturday saw Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Put into bat, the Knight Riders struggled to impose themselves on the contest, despite 49 from Chris Lynn, who top-scored, 29 from Dinesh Karthik, and 18 from Nitish Rana.
None of their other batsmen made it into double figures, whilst the scoring rate in the latter overs was kept down by tight bowling, with Indian test paceman Bhuvneshwar Kumar picking up 3 for 26, and Billy Stanlake and Shakib Al-Hasan both claiming two wickets apiece. As a result, the Kolkata final total of 138 – 8 looked below par, and so it proved, although Hyderabad made heavy weather of reaching their target. Wriddiham Saha (24) and Shikhar Dhawan (7) gave them a solid enough start, but they were reliant on a captain’s knock of 50 by Kiwi Kane Williamson, supported by Shakib (27) to get them within reach of their desired total. Both fell in quick succession but Deepak Hooda and Yusuf Pathan steered their side to victory with an over to spare.
On Sunday, Rajasthan Royals beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 19 runs in a high-scoring match. Bangalore, the hosts, won the toss and decided to field first, but the decision soon back-fired, as Rajasthan made a solid start through their openers Ajinkya Rahane (36) and D’Arcy Short (11) before Sanju Samson arrived at the crease.
Facing just 45 balls, he hit 10 sixes and 2 fours in a brilliant unbeaten 92, and supported by the England duo of Ben Stokes (27) and Jos Buttler (23), as well as brisk 14 not out from Rahul Tripathi, helped the Royals post the highest total in the IPL so far this year with 217 – 4. In reply, Bangalore got off to a poor start when Brendon McCullum fell in the first over, but Quinton de Kock and Virat Kohli helped revive their fortunes with a 77 run second-wicket partnership.
Part-time bowler Short then accounted for de Kock (26) and Kohli, having hit 2 sixes and 7 fours fell to Shreyas Gopol, top-scoring with 57. The same bowler then took the wicket of AB de Villiers for 20, and despite a stand of 56 beaten Washington Sundar (35) and Mandeep Singh (47 not out), the Challengers were behind the asking rate, eventually closing on 198 – 6.
The second match was a closer affair, with the Kings XI Punjab narrowly defeating Chennai Super Kings by 4 runs. Put into bat by Chennai, the home side Punjab got off to a storming start through their opening pair of KH Rahul and Chris Gayle who put on 96 for the first wicket in 8 overs. Rahul then fell to Harbhajan Singh for 37, but Gayle continued to score freely, hitting 63 off just 33 balls, including 4 sixes, until he was eventually out in the 12th over to Shane Watson. His dismissal slowed the Kings’ momentum somewhat, and their innings faltered when Mayank Agarwal (30) and Aaron Finch fell in successive balls to Imran Tahir.
However, Yuvraj Singh (20), Karun Nair (29), and Ravichandran Ashwin (14) all made late contributions with the bat as the Punjab innings closed on 197 – 7. In reply, Chennai lost both openers, Watson and Murali Vijay comparatively early, and when Sam Billings was out for just 9 to Ashwin, they had slumped to 56 – 3. Their innings was rescued by a partnership of 57 between Ambati Rayundu and veteran MS Dhoni, which threatened to turn the match on its head until Rayudu, having reached 49, was run out by Ashwin. Dhoni then continued the run chase with the help of Ravindra Jadeja, with the pair putting on 50 for the 5th wicket, before Jadeja fell for 19 in the penultimate over. At that point, Chennai still needed 35 off 10 balls to win, and despite the heroics of Dhoni, who scored an undefeated 79, including 5 sixes and 6 fours, they fell just short of their target.
Monday night saw the most comprehensive victory in the tournament so far this year as Kolkata Knight Riders beat the Delhi Daredevils by 71 runs, with 34 balls to spare. The win owed much to the Kolkata spin trio of Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav and Piyush Chawla who took seven wickets between them, and heavily restricted the ability of the Delhi batsmen to score. Earlier, it was Delhi who won the toss and put Kolkata into bat. Narine fell cheaply for just a single, but Chris Lynn (31) and Robin Uthappa (35) gave them a platform, whilst Sunil Rana top-scored for the Knight Riders with 59, including 4 sixes and 5 fours. Andre Russel then made another telling contribution with the bat, smashing 41 off just 12 balls, including 6 sixes, and although Rahul Tewatia claimed three wickets in the last over, Kolkata still reached 200 – 9.
The Delhi reply hardly got going, as they lost their top three batsmen for only 24. Rishabh Pant (43) and Glenn Maxwell (47) staged a recovery, but, apart from them, no other batsman made it into double figures, as the last five wickets fell for just 16 runs. Trent Boult was last man out in the 15th over, as the Daredevils collapsed to 129 all out.