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In the 45th match of the IPL 2020, Rajasthan Royals (RR) claimed an inspiring victory against the defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) at Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium (Abu Dhabi).

Stand-in captain of Mumbai Indians, Kieron Pollard chose to bat first after winning the toss. Mumbai Indians scored 195/5 (20 overs) at the end of the first innings. In reply, Rajasthan Royals successfully chased the target in 18.2 overs after losing only two wickets.

IPL 2020, Match 45: Rajasthan Royals vs Mumbai Indians (RR vs MI) – Highlights

Rajasthan Royals (RR) innings

Mumbai Indians pacer James Pattinson got two wickets in the powerplay as he dismissed opener Robin Uthappa (13 runs) and skipper Steven Smith (11 runs) cheaply. But the giant third-wicket partnership between another opener Ben Stokes and Sanju Samson inspired Rajasthan Royals to the victory as both of them didn’t leave the crease until their team won the match.

Rajasthan Royals, Mumbai Indians, highlights, Twitter Reactions, RR vs MI — Ben Stokes and Sanju Samson (Image Credit: IPL)

They had the brilliant 152 runs partnership for the unbroken third wicket as the Mumbai Indians bowlers had no positive solution to stop them. Stokes completed his fifty in 28 balls while Samson scored fifty in 27 balls. At the end moment, Stokes completed his century in 59 balls with a sixer and then finished the game with a four. Their incredible batting helped Rajasthan Royals to chase the target with 10 balls to spare.

While the opener Stokes scored 107 not out off 60 balls with the help of 14 fours and 3 sixes, Samson remained not out on 54 runs off 31 balls (4 fours and 3 sixes).

Scorecard:

Mumbai Indians (MI) innings

Jofra Archer provided a very good start as he bowled the in-form opening batsman Quinton de Kock (6) very cheaply on the fifth ball of the match. But then, the other opener Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav handled the situation and set up a good base in that innings.

They built up the 83 runs partnership for the second wicket. But once Kartik Tyagi brought a breakthrough in the 11th over after dismissing Kishan for 37 runs off 36 balls (4 fours and only six), Mumbai Indians struggled a little bit.

In the 13th over, Shreyas Gopal dismissed Yadav who scored 40 off 26 balls (4 fours and only six). Stand-in captain Kieron Pollard was the next batsman as Gopal bowled him for 6 runs in that same over. From 90/1, MI were suddenly struggling on 101/4.

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Then Saurabh Tiwary and Hardik Pandya controlled the innings with the crucial 64 runs partnership for the fifth wicket. After scoring 34 off 25 balls (4 fours and only six), Tiwary was dismissed by Archer in the 19th over. But Hardik ultimately became the game-changer in the final over as he smashed 26 runs in the last five balls to Kartik Tyagi (6, 4, 4, 6 and 6) and MI scored a total of 27 runs in that final over. In the last five overs, Mumbai Indians scored 79 runs.