Carrying forth the good form from T20 Mumbai, Suryakumar Yadav has been a stalwart for Mumbai Indians in this season’s Indian Premier League. On Sunday, he scored his highest score in this year’s league so far helping Mumbai Indians post a total of 167/7 against a formidable Rajasthan Royals side.

Photo credit: Mumbai Indians/Facebook

He scored 72 runs of just 47 balls at a staggering strike rate of 153.19, including 6 fours and 3 sixes ensuring a feast for the spectators at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur and ended up as the top scorer of the match.

Having opted to bat first, Mumbai Indians lost opener Evin Lewis early in the innings, but Yadav kept the ship steady at the other end by putting up a 130 run-partnership with Ishan Kishan for the 2^nd wicket. The dismissals of Yadav and Kishan in a space of six balls, though, reined in what could have been a daunting total.

Yadav, who led Triumph Knights Mumbai North East to the title in the inaugural T20 Mumbai league last month, saw two wickets go down from the non-striker’s end before losing his own to an excellent slower ball by Jaydev Unadkat. The Rajasthan Royals’ bowlers had regained control of the match at this point and restricted Mumbai Indians to 167 for 7.

Up and over!! You lose some, you win some. It was a tough night for us as the match kept swinging, more than the ball did 😉
Overall a great game of cricket. Fingers crossed for tomorrow 🤞 #RRvMI #IPL2018 @mipaltan pic.twitter.com/D9tZnQeywS

— surya77 (@surya_14kumar) April 23, 2018

The fall of Yadav made a big difference as he was on a rampage and looked destructive right from the start. The 27-year-old has had a good run in the IPL so far, scoring 196 runs at an average of 39.20.

The end of the Yadav-Kishan partnership was significant as well as it got Royals back in the game. Incidentally, it was Dhawal Kulkarni, who was in the Triumph Knights’ squad in T20 Mumbai, who broke it.

Kulkarni had struck for Rajasthan in the fourth ball of the match, bowling Lewis out for a golden duck before returning and sending Kishan back. He ended up with figures of 2/32 in his four overs.

The match eventually turned out to be a thriller with Royals winning with two balls to spare, after they bounced back from 125 for 6 at the start of the 18^th over with Krishnappa Gowtham’s blitz towards the end.