Picture Credit: Twitter
The ninth game of the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) being played between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals is getting intense with both teams giving it all to outperform one another. After putting on a mammoth 193/8 on the board, RR started well with the bowl as well. They sent two of the MI batters back to the pavilion inside the powerplay.
But they were frustrated by Ishan Kishan and Tilak Verma as the duo kept RR deprived of a wicket for almost 10 overs. However, the breakthrough finally came for them on the last ball of the 13th over. Trent Boult broke the 71-run stand between Varma and Kishan. But it would not have been possible without the brilliant effort from Saini.
The pacer placed at deep midwicket ran a few yards to his left and held on to the ball which was travelling at a rapid pace towards the boundaries. The momentum of the ball took Saini a few steps backwards and the pacer could not balance and eventually injured himself. He had to be assisted off the field after that.
Watch the video here:
Rajasthan successfully defend 193
This fantabulous effort from Navdeep Saini yielded probably the most important wicket of the match for RR as Ishan Kishan was looking dangerous. After dismissing Kishan, Rajasthan sensed that they cannot lose from thereon. They kept the pressure intact and shortly dismissed another set batter, Tilak Varma. The veteran off-spinner was up to the task for RR this time as he deceived the batter with a beautiful loopy delivery.
MI were still in the hunt even after these two batters were dismissed. But another wizard did the trick for RR with his two wickets on consecutive deliveries of the final over. Yuzvendra Chahal dismissed Tim David and Daniel Sams on back-to-back deliveries and almost got a hat-trick. But Karun Nair dropped a simple catch at slips. Nonetheless, Prasidh Krishna and Navdeep Saini kept their cool against Kieron Pollard to seal the game for RR.