Live Report - Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals

Three balls. Three full tosses. Three sixes.

Holdar can't bowl in the death.

And its made worse by the fact that there's dew on the ground.

Tim David wins it for Mumbai. Yashasvi Jaiswal, after playing an amazing innings, ends up on the losing side

The six he leaked the moment Tim David came on strike made him leak a wide as well. Bouncer gone too high over the batter.

This is the pressure facing an end-overs bowler. Especially with dew around.

Mumbai need 17 to win off the last six balls. It's a toss up between Jason Holder and Yuzvendra Chahal. And it's Jason Holder.

Boult's 18th over starts with a boundary, but he recovers to give up only three runs off the next four balls.

The last one is a wide yorker. And he fairly nails it. Except David nails it better and finds a boundary through cover. It's extraordinary hitting. That's just pure bottom-hand power. Mumbai need 32 off 12 balls. Forecaster has them at 17% favourites.

And it's all thanks to Sandeep Sharma.

He wasn't picked at the auction.

He came in as a replacement when Prasidh Krishna couldn't play the IPL for Royals.

And so far, he's survived an epic finisher's innings from MS Dhoni. And now he's picked up a catch that will be replayed over and over and over again because it's taken out the key man keeping Mumbai in this game.

Suryakumar Yadav is gone. For once his scoop doesn't work. Because Sandeep runs back from short fine. 19 metres says the broadcast. All the while looking up over his left shoulder. Even so, the ball seems to beating him. He has to dive. Propel himself off the ground and reach out with both hands. It's fingertip stuff.

Mumbai need 57 off 24. It's very possible.

Kuldeep Sen comes into bowl his first over, and he disappears.

Wankhede is roaring again. That's more like it.

They roared for Sachin. They roared for Rohit. They roared for Bumrah. They roared for Malinga. And now they are roaring for Suryakumar Yadav. He is 43 off 20. Mumbai are 124 for 3. They need 89 in 42 balls. ESPNcricinfo's forecaster gives them an 11% chance of victory.

The fifth (legal) ball of that over was originally a wicket. Kuldeep thought he had Tilak Varma. Tilak Varma thought so too. He went for a review with only three seconds left on the clock. It was a desperate, hopeful call. And it turned out to be right because the seamer was bowling over the wicket and the chances of the ball pitching outside leg were high. It pitched outside leg. Wankhede roared again. Varma punched the air.

Varma, after getting that life, seems to be back to his old self. He bullies Yuzvendra Chahal; one of those shots was a premeditated reverse sweep. The legspinner saw it and tried to fire it out of the batter's reach outside off stump. But he still caught up with it.

For as tough as this pitch has been, we've seem some remarkable shots played on it! Mumbai need 72 off 36. Forecaster has them 23.9% favourites.

It is hard to hit Ashwin for sixes. Cameron Green tries and is caught on the midwicket boundary.

Having bowled over 200 balls this IPL, he has given away only nine sixes.

I wanted to see if there are anybody as difficult to hit out of the ground and for a 200-ball cut off, there's nobody. Ashwin has the highest balls per six ratio.

For a 100 ball cut-off - and this has nothing to do with this game, just something that's startling and good - Mayank Markande is the best, giving away just two sixes. Woof! He's come out of nowhere and is having an amazing season!

He's 15 off 6 and already sparking conference meetings among the Royals.

As awesome as his shots sometimes are - in that over above he scooped Holder over the keeper, and next ball, an attempted yorker from around the wicket, he whipped it straight-bat through midwicket - the thing that is striking about him is how much belief he has and how he is never shaken.

This pitch has not been kind to batters. It's slow. It's not coming on. It produced perhaps the saddest Rohit Sharma and Jos Buttler innings to date. Those two are top-level players but they couldn't hack this pitch.

Here comes this guy, who not so long ago bagged three ducks on the trot, and he keeps playing the way he's ALWAYS played. High-risk shots. Except he's timing them all perfectly. His balance at the crease is spot on. And the point where he makes contact with the ball, even when he plays those scoops, his head is invariable still. This is a triumph of belief. So kids, when you go through a rough patch, don't doubt yourself. Keep doing what you do. It'll work out.

Green 40 off 21

Kishan falls for 28 off 23

Mumbai 76 for 2 in 8.2 overs

Similar things happened with Royals and Jaiswal. He kept walloping everything but the people at the other end couldn't come to grips with the pitch.

Of course Suryakumar Yadav walks in and launches his first ball for six over backward square leg. And he does it to R Ashwin too, who has bowled 210 balls this IPL and only been hit out of the park nine times.

Two balls. That's all Sandeep needed to nail his match-up.

He came into this game having dismissed Rohit Sharma four times in 42 balls.

That's now five in 44 because an incredible knuckle ball - such a hard variation to pull off - has beaten Rohit all ends up.

The visuals are gory. Rohit is off to the leg side. Because he sees what he thinks is a harmless length ball and knows he can hit it over cover if he just makes some room to free the arms.

What happens instead is, Sandeep's knuckle ball loses all its pace after hitting the pitch. And Rohit can't adjust the downswing of his bat. He is actually recoiling because, in addition to slowing down, the ball also bounces up towards the shoulder of his bat.

Rohit tries to cope. But he's so badly off balance. He's beaten. And the ball has a clear path to the off bail.

That's the kind of pitch this has been. Slow. And that's the kind of bowler Sandeep is. Ingenius. He knew his variations would work and immediately went to them, even though he had a new ball that was swinging around.

Then in walks Cam Green and does this to Trent Boult

Royals made 72 for 0 in seven overs.

Then they slumped to 31 for 3 in the next four overs.

Mumbai seemed to have control of the game.

That's when it peaked. And that's why we'll be talking about it for ages. The highest score by an uncapped Indian batter in the IPL. Jaiswal 124 off 62 balls with 16 fours and eight sixes. The next highest scorer was Jos Buttler on 18 off 19.

Royals made 109 runs since the 12th over. Jaiswal cracked 72 of them. That's 66% of his team's runs in the business end of the innings.

Incredible stuff. Here's his innings break-up.

10 runs off the 12th over, nine to Jaiswal

13 runs off the 13th over, 11 to Jaiswal

16 runs off the 14th over, five to Jaiswal

One run off the 15th over, Jaiswal couldn't face a single ball

10 runs off the 16th over, eight to Jaiswal

15 off the 17th over, 13 to Jaiswal

15 off the 18th over, 12 to Jaiswal

13 off the 19th over, 12 to Jaiswal

Nine off the first four balls of the 20th over, eight to Jaiswal, and he's gone for 124

Now we're in the death and we have the privilege of seeing what he can do in these situations as well. HE NOW HAS 100 OFF 53 BALLS and rightly he takes a bow in front of his home ground in domestic cricket, but right now he's in enemy territory

He's a key player for Royals. The kind who could change a game in the space of 10 balls or so.

And Arshad Khan is just the kind of bowler he's been lining up all season. Pace, but not quite express.

The first ball of this battle goes for six, because it was on his pads. Hetmyer has been outstanding when he has access to the leg side.

The second ball though is banged into the wicket - and it's a slow wicket - with all the pace taken off.

That messes with a power-hitter's timing. And Hetmyer can only find long-on

You'd think a guy who's played eight matches, but batted only one ball, would be a little more eager to spend time in the middle.

But Jason Holder is gone for 11 off 9.

Jasiwal is 77 off 44 for no wicket
The others are 45 off 42 for four wickets

This is Archer in his third over. He was brought back to perhaps take out Jaiswal and break this game. He got the other guy instead.

Scoop off Arshad Khan in the 10th over.

Scoop against Riley Meredith's extra pace in the 12th over.

Reverse sweep for six off Piyush Chawla who specialises in turning the ball away from the left-hander in the 13th over. (Read he was clever, he hit with the turn)

And in between he's played scorching cover drives (one of em took him to a 32-ball fifty) and firm hits down the ground.

Mumbai have been able to keep every other batter quiet. But as soon as Jaiswal comes on strike, the game changes. He's 72 off 41. Royals are 126 for 3 in 13 overs. That means his team-mates combined have scored 37 off 37 balls for the loss of four wickets (Mumbai have bowled 17 extras to pad this total up)

Sidharth Monga called him the revelation of the season, AND HE IS STILL GOING STRONG!

He took out Buttler earlier in the game.

Now, he deceives Padikkal with a googly. Beats the outside edge and goes through to the keeper. It was a bad look for the batter. Stuck in the crease. Struggling to pick which way it would spin.

Chawla saw all this. He saw the uncertainty. So he went for the googly again. This time a little quicker through the air. And a lot straighter too.

Padikkal is flat footed once more. He absolutely does not know which way this is going to spin. Plays for the one coming in. Gets bowled by the one going away.

Incredible stuff from our ESPNcricinfo Time:Out expert from last season!

Royals 103 for 3 in 11 overs. And here's Jason Holder, whom Royals have massively underutilised with the bat. This is his eighth match of the season, and yet coming into this game, he'd only faced only one ball!

Samson's gone for 14 off 9.

It's the anti-climax that has followed him all career long.

He only really wanted to nudge a single off his pads.

Instead the ball just rockets off it, all the way towards the deep midwicket fielder.

If there is any criticism of the shot, maybe he was into it a bit too early. Only Samson could time a shot off his leading edge all the way to deep midwicket. Facepalm emoji.

Not too long ago, Rohit Sharma marvelled over Sanju Samson's ability. Just the class of the man. How good he looks at the crease. How easy the game becomes when he's on song.

It's a shame those days don't come often enough, which is probably why he hasn't gone on to have a better international career, but he's still only 28. There is plenty of time.

Once again he shows just why he is so highly rated. He scoops a good length ball from a spinner - so it has no pace on it - for a boundary to fine leg because that's where the gap was. Mumbai had covered for his big hits down the ground with long-on and midwicket. But they didn't spot this little thing and he took advantage. Beautiful batting.

Mumbai would've felt good taking Buttler out cheap (He avareages 94 against them) but in walks the Royals captain and refuses to let the momentum shift. His team is 88 for 1 in nine overs.

Jaiswal 35 off 18 with a strike rate 194, five fours and two sixes.

Buttler 10 off 13 with a strike rate 77, two fours.

This is one special player. And it shows in how he's overshadowing a limited-overs great.

The cool thing about Jaiswal is that he has boundary options on the off side too. Two of his four fours in the fifth over by Riley Meredith - another guy who bowls 150 kph - were through point and cover.

Bowlers and captains like to contain oppositions to one side of the pitch. When you can mess that up like Jaiswal is doing now - when his much more accomplished partner is struggling - you know you have something most of your peers dont.

He really should be up for India selection soon.

This is how I wanna feel all day all the time. This rush that comes with watching one of the fastest bowlers in the world running in at one of the greatest T20 batters in history.

Seven balls of Jof vs Jos.

At the end of it, Royals come out with credit. They're 42 for 0 in four overs

But through the course of the over, Archer was able to beat Buttler for both pace and movement. The fact that they share a dressing room was apparent in how Archer was so careful not to give Buttler any room to free the arms. Trying his best to hit a good length, in the vicinity of the pitch, and nip it into his England white-ball captain.

The first boundary was incorrectly credit to Buttler. It was just seam movement taking the ball past leg stump and to the boundary behind the keeper. The other four comes off the outside half of Buttler's bat.

Ravi Shastri who is a local boy has absolutely nailed the pitch and how it might behave.

On the broadcast, he said it will give the bowlers bounce, but it looked dry, so it won't have a lot of pace.

And so far - though its only three overs, with Royals 26 for 2 - he's been proved right. Especially when Green is bowling into the deck.

Archer's still getting 150 kph to fly through. AND HE'S GETTING SIDEWAYS MOVEMENT. This guy is bonkers good at what he does! His battle with Steven Smith at the Ashes cannot come quickly enough.

But Green is getting balls to stick in the pitch and bounce awkwardly, so much so that Jos Buttler, who is one of THE most phenomenal on-the-up drivers over the ball is 1 off 8.

The first over from Cam Green

The second over from Jofra Archer

The second six in this sequence came off Jofra Archer. And it went OUT OF THE GROUND.

Both shots were the batter showing he won't be intimidated. They came off bouncers. Balls meant to push the batter on the back foot. Balls meant to make him think twice about going big.

Jaiswal doesn't do those things. He backs himself. Even against the world's very best. A great talent.

Archer gets one back at the end though. Two outstanding balls that would've fit right in in Test cricket. Round the wicket. Hitting the deck. 149 kph. Squaring the left-hander up both times and extreeeemly unlucky not to get the edge both times.

A little ceremony to mark the 1000th IPL game, with mementos handed out to the two captains.

Then comes the biggest cheer as Sachin Tendulkar is called up to collect a trinket for himself. He played the first edition all those years ago in 2008.

Royals coach Kumar Sangakkar is also called up, to much more muted applause. He was there in 2008 too. Possibly with Deccan Charges (?)

Kieron Pollard: He’s grown as a leader. I mean he’s grown into leadership. Obviously, it was entrusted onto him in 2013 in the middle of a season. He was still pretty young at that point in time. That shows you that a person has a great acumen of what he can accomplish and we are lucky to have him as a leader. He has a wealth of experience, so it’s a matter of tapping into that and continuing to see him grow.

Suryakumar Yadav: Here we are in his 10th year as captain. So obviously 10 years as captain, that too for a franchise like Mumbai Indians. I think it is a very, very big achievement. It’s a story in itself. He’s brought so much glory for the franchise, winning five trophies under his captaincy.”

So we're gonna get Jos Buttler vs Jofra Archer right away! Woohooooo! Here are the playing XIs

He's not been the happiest camper this season, but if there is one place where Jofra Archer can just forget about his worries, it's that spot about 30 paces from the bowling crease. That perfect stretch of green grass from where he starts his utterly gorgeous run-up and unleashes nature's beautiful fury.

S Sudarshanan, who is at the Wankhede for us tonight, has spotted him on the field going through his game-day routines. It looks like he's playing. He's also spotted Trent Boult busily going through his pre-match routines. This is going to be fun. The fast-bowling cartel is out in full force tonight.

You can track ball-by-ball commentary of this game in Hindi as well as Tamil