In the 1,000th game of the Indian Premier League, which took place on Sunday in Mumbai, Yashasvi Jaiswal scored an incredible first century (124) to lead Rajasthan Royals to a commanding 212 for 7 over Mumbai Indians.
Local youngster Jaiswal single-handedly propelled Rajasthan Royals to the large score by smashing 16 fours and 8 sixes in only 62 balls, while Mumbai Indians let up their third straight total in excess of 200 this season.
Riley Meredith (4-0-51-1) was a particular favourite of Jaiswal, who increased his season total to over 400 runs and scored the highest IPL total this season. Jaiswal smashed half of his fours and a six against the Australian bowler.
Jaiswal made sure the run rate didn’t fall even if the other Royals hitters couldn’t help out at the other end. His knock got off to a strong start with Jos Buttler (18) and a 72-run opening partnership.
Buttler struck on his ninth ball, and in the opening few of overs, Jaiswal blasted sixes off of both Cameron Green (3-0-31-0) and Jofra Archer (4-0-41-1), giving RR the advantage.
In only five overs, the left-handed Jaiswal struck four fours off of Meredith to help RR reach 50 runs, and they ended the powerplay with a solid 65 without losing.
After recently undergoing minor surgery on his right elbow in Belgium, MI pacer Archer achieved 149.3 kmph early in the match as he seemed to be catching his stride in the third game of the season.
Although Archer struggled with line in his first spell (2-0-21-0), he used the short ball to dismiss Jason Holder (11) and the left-handed batters for RR.
After a strong first over from seasoned spinner Piyush Chawla, the opening partnership was broken in the eighth over when Buttler was caught at long-on.
Sanju Samson (14), the captain of the Royals, started the game with a first-ball six but only stayed in the middle for a brief time before chipping one off Arshad Khan (3-0-39-3) in the tenth over straight to deep midwicket.
As Jaiswal hit Chawla for a four to reach his fourth IPL fifty in the eleventh over, the leg-spinner bamboozled Devdutt Padikkal (2) to claim his second wicket of the match.
Before the game began, the BCCI celebrated the 1,000th IPL match by having its secretary Jay Shah present mementos to the two captains, Rohit Sharma and Samson, as well as to head coach of the Royals Kumar Sangakkara and legendary player of the MI team Sachin Tendulkar.
Rohit, who took over as the captain of the five-time champion Mumbai Indians in April 2013, also finished his 150th game in that capacity.
