Rickelton rocks as Mumbai march on

Ryan Rickelton scored his third half-century of the IPL season to help the Mumbai Indians hammer the Rajasthan Royals by 100 runs on Thursday.

Rickelton hit 61 off 38 balls and fellow opener Rohit Sharma 53 off 36 as Mumbai posted 217-2 after being asked to bat first at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.

Indian pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah and spinner Karn Sharma then picked up a combined total of five wickets to help bowl out Rajasthan for 117 in 16.1 overs after teenage sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi fell to a two-ball duck.

The match extends the Mumbai Indians’ winning streak to six games and pushes them to the top of the points table.

Mumbai captain Hardik Pandya said the team were going back to “simple” cricket with clinical batting and bowling performances.

“As a group, the way we batted was proper batsmanship,” said Hardik. “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.”

Rickelton and Rohit began Mumbai’s innings on a dominant note, producing a 116-run partnership before Rickelton departed in the 12th over.

Rohit fell shortly after, leaving the team at 123-2.

But the rest of the batting burden was shouldered ably by aggressive knocks from Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik.

Both players smacked an unbeaten 48 runs each, giving no quarter to Rajasthan’s bowlers, with Yadav hitting a six off the very last ball to set Rajasthan a chase of 218.

In reply, Rajasthan started the on a wobbly note. Suryavanshi went for a duck in the first over while Yashasvi Jaiswal (13) fell soon after, leaving the team at 20-2 at the end of the second over.

Unfortunately for the hosts, sharp spells from Mumbai’s bowlers triggered a batting collapse.

Nitish Rana (nine), skipper Riyan Parag (16), Shimron Hetmyer (nought), Shubham Dubey (15) and Dhruv Jurel (11) fell in quick succession, leaving the team teetering at 76-7 at the end of the ninth over.

England’s Jofra Archer offered a glimmer of hope, hitting 30 off 27 balls, but was dismissed to leave Rajasthan well short of their target.

Parag said Mumbai deserved credit “for the way they batted”.

“Yeah, 190-200 would have been ideal. We’ve been getting good starts,” he said. “But it’s up to the middle order to step up. I think we’ve done a lot of things right. And a lot of things wrong.”

Photo: Money Sharma/AFP via Getty Images