'MI only team jo aisa kar skti thi' - Fans react as MI defeat RR by 6 wickets in last-over thriller in IPL 2023

MI vs RR (Source: Twitter)

The 1000th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) couldn't have been better than what we just witnessed at the Wankhede Stadium in the clash between Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Mumbai Indians (MI). The five-time champions cruised to an incredible six-wicket victory on Sunday, April 30, giving their skipper the perfect birthday gift. Yashasvi Jaiswal's maiden IPL century was overshadowed by some magnificent hitting from MI batters during a massive 213-run chase.

After opting to bat first Yashasvi Jaiswal gave RR a superb start while Jos Buttler struggled to find runs. The latter fell to Piyush Chawla in the first ball of the eighth over after scoring 18 off 19 balls. The left-hander’s aggressive knock in the powerplay led the their team to post a 72-run partnership for the first wicket. The visitors suffered back-to-back setbacks as they lost skipper Sanju Samson and Devdutt Padikkal in the successive overs.

Jaiswal was searching for someone to form a partnership with, but wickets continued to fall at one end. Shimron Hetmyr and Dhruv Jurel also had a bad day at work as they fell for cheap runs. However, the 21-year-old batted out of his skin and went on to smash his maiden IPL century and ensured his team reach a competitive total of 212 runs.

In reply, MI lost their skipper's wicket by 3 runs in the second over, but Cameron Green and Ishan Kishan ensured the powerplay was not wasted. The pair pushed the team score to 58 in the first six overs, but in the ninth over, Ravichandran Ashwin dismissed Kishan to give relief to the RR camp. However, Suryakumar Yadav did not let up, smashing Jason Holder for three fours in a row in the very next over.

Ashwin once again put the brakes on MI's stroke play by dismissing Green (44 off 26 balls) in the 11th over. But SKY kept going, hitting Kuldeep Sen for 15 runs in the 13th over and eventually reaching his half-century in just 24 balls. Just when it looked like Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma would finish things off for MI, Trent Boult made a big breakthrough by dismissing the former in the 16th over.

After that, Tim David and Varma ensured that they did not lose any more wickets and formed a brilliant partnership to cross the finish line. With 17 runs needed in the last over, the Australian big hitter hit three consecutive sixes to wrap things up for MI. David remained unbeaten on 45 off 14 balls while Varma remained unbeaten on 29 off 21 balls.

Here's how fans reacted to Mumbai's win:

Deserving finish to 1000th IPL match pic.twitter.com/y2ChHFiBCM

— Rahul Sharma (@CricFnatic) April 30, 2023

What clean hitting!
Also have to say terrible bowling in the last over…. Three flat fulltosses….

— Sumit Agarwal 🇮🇳 (@sumitagarwal_IN) April 30, 2023

Perfect way of Match fixing. Thank you to Mumbai Indians for showing how it works.#MIvsRR #IPL2023

— Ravi 🇮🇳 (@Ravi_Ravi_Ravi3) April 30, 2023

Holder is a blind bowler who can't see the pitch

— Vishwas Singh 🇮🇳 (@VishalS02726277) April 30, 2023

One of the craziest knocks in the last segment

— Flash Light 🔦 (@FlashLight2050) April 30, 2023

Clear match fixing...
3 Full Toss😈😈😈

— Saurabh Jaiswal (@cricrazy100rbh) April 30, 2023

Just stunning chase, man, one of the greatest matches ever, #MIvsRR

— kailash bisht (@kailash29664024) April 30, 2023

Mi only team jo aisa kar skti thi

— MESSIholic (@LMVVS_) April 30, 2023

Atlast A new version of Pollard arrived 🥵🥵

— Mohamed Annas (@MohamedAnnas23) April 30, 2023

Take a bow Tim David. That is some hitting. Congratulations Tim David and MI.👏👏👏❤️

— Hishani (@Hishani4) April 30, 2023