IPL 2018: Rajasthan's Krishnappa Gowtham stuns Mumbai with 33* off 11 balls

PTI

Krishnappa Gowtham smashed an unbeaten 33 off 11 balls to lead Rajasthan to a famous win against Mumbai at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Sunday.

Chasing 168 to win against Mumbai, Rajasthan's chase was in bad shape at 125/6 in 17.1 overs when Gowtham went berserk. As Rajasthan fans' hopes were dwindling, the Karnataka allrounder took a six and a four off Mustafizur Rahman's last two balls of the 18th over. 

The 29-year-old continued his assault and in the next over bowled by Jasprit Bumrah, who had back-to-back wickets in his previous over to leave Rajasthan reeling, he unleashed two smashing boundaries. In all 18 runs came from the seven-ball over. 

Needing 10 runs in the last over, Rajasthan were dealt a big blow when Jofra Archer, who had taken a four off Bumrah in the previous over, fell off the first ball from Hardik Pandya. Gowtham who had crossed over to the other end as Archer started his walk back to the dug-out then hit a four and a six in the space of three balls to lead Rajasthan to a big heist with two balls to go and three wickets in hand. It was RR's third win in six matches.  

Earlier in the day after Mumbai opted to bat, Archer lived up to his reputation and playing his first IPL match returned 3 for 22 in his four overs to help Rajasthan restrict Mumbai to 167/7.

The big West Indian took a while to find his rhythm but when he did he was unplayable. Mumbai were nicely placed to go berserk at 153/4 in 18 overs when Rajasthan captain Ajinkya Rahane handed the ball to Archer to bowl what was his last over. What happened in that over gave one goosebumps as Archer paralysed the visitors' innings with three wickets in the space of five balls. 

First he had Krunal Pandya caught by Heinrich Klaasen at deep midwicket. The 23-year-old went from strength to strength and unleashed fiery yorkers to rattle the stumps of Hardik Pandya and Mitchell McClenaghan off successive deliveries. 

Before the Archer show, Mumbai's Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan impressed a lot with their great maturity. Both added 130 runs for the second wicket to help the team reach a competitive total despite Archer's lethal 19th over. Suryakumar was the first to reach his fifty off just 29 balls -- second this season, third overall. It didn't take Kishan long to get his fifty either, off just 35 balls -- first this season, second overall. 

Kishan fell after a 42-ball 58 in the 15th over and shortly after Suryakumar also departed for 72 off 47 balls. Their departure in quick succession hurt Mumbai a great deal. On a slow wicket, the rest of the MI batsmen, including bit hitters like Kieron Pollard, Krunal and Hardik, struggled shockingly in the death overs as the team fell at least 20 runs short. Those runs proved costly in the end. This was Mumbai's fourth defeat in five matches.