IPL 2025: Mighty Mumbai Indians crush Rajasthan Royals by 100 runs with BOOM producing another master class

Add as a preferred source on Google

To score a century in any form of cricket is a delight. And to lose by 100 runs is misery, which was the case for Rajasthan Royals at the hands of a juggernaut called Mumbai Indians in IPL 2025.

At the Sawai Man Singh Stadum in Pink City, named after the well-known Rajput ruler, MI were like a road roller in motion. To borrow a science term, this was sheer momentum from MI (mass X velocity) as they were able string their sixth win a row, where the entire focus is on how the team is maximising its collective strength.

For a layman, the scorecard is the easiest way to get a drift of what panned out in the match. This was another master class from MI, where multiple superstars performed roles assigned to them. For those who said Hardik Pandya was a bad choice as MI skipper when he was chosen in 2024 to lead ahead of Rohit Sharma, the decision is turning out to be a good one.

Each leader deserves encomium for the effort he puts in to pilot the side. And in the summer of 2025, for Pandya to show that he can keep the flock together and pull off one more win is defining.

Zooming to the top of the points table, with a net run rate of +1.274, MI know they need to keep their act going. Law of averages could see one loss, but not with this kind of an effort coming from the team as a whole.

Look at the way the MI top order has clicked, it is a delight. Maybe, at the start of this IPL season, there was some rust. But the way Ryan Rickelton has performed for MI has been defining. The 28-year-old from Joburg in South Africa has needed time to settle down with MI this season.

On Thursday night, the southpaw showed virtues of being a batter who was going to attack, even though in the first three overs, MI had been pegged down. Once that phase was over, Rickelton eased, teased and then tormented the Rajasthan attack.

It lacked tooth and bite, as the pace battery led by Jofra Archer and supported by Fazalhaq Farooqui, the Afghani left arm speedster, suffered.

Rickelton and Rohit Sharma have a great advantage as the left-right combine at the top makes it hard for the bowlers. RR, too, were finding it tough to bowl a line and length where there pacers and spinners could curtail the flow of runs. Rickelton was bought at his base price of Rs 1 crore during the IPL auction last winter in Saudi Arabia.

What he has produced in terms of runs and quality is worth much more. He will realise, to be with a big franchise from Mumbai will do him good in the long run.

Back to Rohit Sharma, scoring one more half ton was ease and elan. He is in the pink of form and fitness, though what one saw as variety for a change was how Hitman produced a different cuisine. He was not smashing the white ball on the leg side with disdain, as usual, but showed more creativity in 'driving' on the off side and producing runs.

This technicality is important, for in the Test series in England, he cannot go hammer and tong at the Englishmen in vastly different conditions which are expected. So, to see Rohit score in a different region and yet collect 53 off 36 balls was attractive. Nine fours and no six tells you the story in a nutshell of what his focus was.

At the risk of sounding invidious, the RR bowling attack looked club class. The pacers and spinners, where skipper Riyan Parag also had to roll his arm over for two overs showed how short they came. The MI batting might soared.

When you have two of the most destructive white ball batters who will belt with no mercy, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya showed they were going to push hard.

The wicket was not easy, really, so the batters had to be creative in scoring 48 each. For Surya, this IPL has been a great run to bounce back to form where his three sixes lit up the skyline under the arc lights. Pandya, as is his wont, was timing his shots well.

The way the MI bowling unit fired was easy. Trent Boult, the 35-year-old from Rotorua in New Zealand was like a weapon of mass destruction as in 2.1 overs he gave away 28 runs and took three important wickets.

For those who have fallen in love with Jasprit Bumrah again and again (batters excluded) he has bounced back so hard after a three-month injury break. It does not matter what the wicket is like, Boom will fire.

On Thursday night, Bumrah held a master class once again. The wicket was not meant for fast bowling, really. This is where the genius of Bumrah comes into play. He knows how to fire the white ball in the right region, cramp the batter as well as strike.

What a delight it was as his four overs cost 15 runs, where he also snapped Riyan Parag and Shimron Hetmyer, two potential match winners for RR. What people may have skipped, Bumrah produced 15 dot balls. Need one more say how this all-format ace legend stifled RR. It has been a season of misery for the Jaipur outfit. And that will be a separate treatise for another day.