Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Steve Smith said that the manner in which they beat Mumbai Indians on Sunday at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium was exactly what they have been looking for this season. RR, whose chances of making it to the playoffs are hanging by a thread, stunned league leaders MI by chasing down a target of 196 with eight wickets and two overs to spare.
They pulled off the chase thanks to unbeaten knocks of 107 and 54 from Ben Stokes and Sanju Samson, respectively.
“Very pleased, that’s what we’re crying for, use the experience, take the game deep and that’s what both Stokes and Samson did,” said RR captain Steve Smith in the post-match presentation ceremony.
“The wicket was playing good, the ball was coming onto the bat, there was the intent – the shots were flowing, they just played good cricketing shots – I thought the partnership was fantastic,” he said.
RR looked like they could limit MI to a total close to 150 by the way they pulled things back in the middle overs, but Hardik Pandya’s 21-ball 60 propelled MI to 195/5. He was dropped in the 16th over while he was on six off seven balls.
“We played some good cricket in the first half, the dropped chance proved to be costly, perhaps we ended up giving away another 40-45 runs, but it didn’t matter in the end. I hope our batters take the confidence from this match and play knocks which will help the team win,” said Smith.
