By Razeen Gutta
Action from the Indian Premier League continues to come thick and fast as the Mumbai Indians brace themselves for the arrival of the Rajasthan Royals on Monday.
The weekend’s action saw the Punjab Kings suffer their second defeat on the spin, with the Lucknow Super Giants beating them by 21 runs on Saturday.
21-year-old pace bowler Mayank Yadav was the star with a terrific 3/27 in his four overs for the Giants.
On Sunday, the Titans got their second win on the board under Shubman Gill’s captaincy, beating the Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets.
In the late game, a sublime MS Dhoni cameo would not be enough for Chennai Super Kings to get over the line against a resilient Delhi Capitals side.
The Capitals got their first points of the season after David Warner made a half century to help them to a first innings score of 191/5.
Khaleel Ahmed and Mukesh Kumar cleaned up the Super Kings’ top order — meaning that despite a late 37 off 16 balls for Dhoni, the visitors would fall short by 20 runs.
The Kolkata Knight Riders currently lead the way at the top of the pile following their win over the Royal Challengers Bangalore on Friday. Alongside KKR, Rajasthan are the only other unbeaten side in the tournament thus far.
The Royals, however, must now face up to an angry Mumbai crowd who are far from pleased at the underwhelming results that their side have delivered under the new captaincy of Hardik Pandya.
Defeats to Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad has sparked serious conversations in the cricketing world regarding whether or not the decision to strip Indian captain Rohit Sharma of his leadership duties was the right move by the tournament’s most successful side.
Pandya will look to make things right on Monday with the Wankhede faithful watching with bated breath. Action begins at 4pm live on SuperSport.
Pictured above: Hardik Pandya
Image source: @perth_171_
