KL Rahul’s 103* from 60 balls, his second century against Mumbai Indians and the second century overall in IPL 2022, as well as two early wickets from Avesh Khan and sloppy fielding from Mumbai in the first half combined to extend the five-time champions’ streak of losses to six. The latest defeat all but signals the end of Mumbai’s chances for the season, with eight wins in eight now the requirement if they want to have a chance of making the playoffs. Lucknow Super Giants, meanwhile, jumped to second place on the table with their fourth win.

Hardly anything went right for Mumbai after they won the toss. Their bowling was wayward, the fielding was forgettable, and the batting lacked big partnerships or big individual innings; all they got were cameos from Dewald Brevis and Kieron Pollard after Suryakumar Yadav kept them steady in the middle overs.Regular loss of wickets in their chase of 200 meant Mumbai were always playing catch-up, but they took things somewhat close in the end. And it was mainly down to Pollard and Jaydev Unadkat.

The powerplay mixed bag. Mumbai opened the bowling with Tilak Varma’s offbreaks, and then went on to use six different bowlers in the powerplay. Barring one swinging delivery from Unadkat early on that nearly hit the top of Quinton de Kock’s stumps, the Super Giants openers were unbothered by the bowling changes and were off the blocks quickly. de Kock crunched Unadkat for two fours in that same over, and followed it up with two more in the next against M Ashwin with his trademark slog-sweeps.

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Real captain knock by Rahul, bowlers did there part

Rahul, meanwhile, got himself in, trudging to 12 off 15 after a quiet Jasprit Bumrah over before he took on Tymal Mills’ full and short deliveries for two fours and six in a 16-run over. Fabian Allen, getting his first game this IPL, removed de Kock on his third ball but not before leaking a six to him, and then a first-ball four to Manish Pandey, which gave Super Giants a strong powerplay of 57 for 1. Where is Mumbai’s A game?
That Mumbai’s bowlers erred with their lengths on a ground with shortish boundaries and didn’t field like a champion side cost them dearly. Pandey and Rahul were already hitting a boundary nearly every over and Mumbai made their task easier.

One fumble at deep square-leg at the end of the eighth over made it two fours in a row off Allen. More of them followed, especially at the deep, and soon after Rahul had struck three sixes for a 33-ball half-century, Brevis stopped a Pandey pull in the deep but he tumbled as he looked like he was slapping it back for another player, and ended up lobbing it over the fence for four. The very next ball, Rahul steered a low and wide full-toss towards third man where a misfield gave him four more.

Rahul’s A game is all there. By now, Bumrah was screaming into his towel, Rohit was down on his haunches, and Rahul was looking better and better. After Mills went for another 18 runs in the 13th over with two fours from each batter, Pandey was bowled by Ashwin for 38, only for Marcus Stoinis to launch a wrong’un over long-on for six off his first ball.Rahul showcased his touch against Allen with another 18-run over that saw two powerful sixes. It was only Bumrah, who stemmed the flow of runs briefly, and Super Giants seemed happy to see him off with ones and twos.

For the others, Rahul continued to unleash his drives and scythes, one of which brought up his third IPL century in what was his 100th game in the league.