Suryakumar, Bumrah fire Mumbai Indians to third straight win
Abu Dhabi: Suryakumar Yadav smashed his highest score in the tournament as Mumbai Indians put up a clinical performance against a pedestrian Rajasthan Royals outfit for their third successive win in the Indian Premier League here on Tuesday.
Yadav hammered an unbeaten 79 off 47 balls to fire Mumbai Indians to an imposing 193 for four after Rohit Sharma opted to bat at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium.
In response, Royals were down and out at 12 for three before Jos Buttler gave them a glimmer of hope with a 44-ball 70.
However, he did not get support from the other batsmen, and the Royals ended up well short at 136 in 18.1 overs for a 57-run loss, their third in a row. The three changes that they made also did not work for them.
Mumbai's pace trio was exceptional once again with Jasprit Bumrah being the pick of them, returning with figures of four for 20, the best of the tournament so far. Trent Boult struck twice in the powerplay while James Pattinson removed Buttler in the 14th over.
With another resounding win, Mumbai looks the team to beat alongside Delhi Capitals. It is still early days in the tournament but it seems they have already figured out their best eleven on the park.
Earlier, Mumbai suffered a mini middle-order collapse after a good start before late-hitting from Yadav and Hardik Pandya (30 not out off 19) enabled the defending champions to amass 51 runs in the last three overs.
It was remarkable how quickly Yadav overcame a blow on the helmet from Jofra Archer en route to his career-best score in the IPL.
He and Hardik shared 76 runs for the unbroken fifth-wicket stand.
Opting to bat, openers Rohit Sharma (35 off 23) and Quinton De Kock (23 off 15 balls) forged a quickfire 49-run stand.
Mumbai amassed 15 runs in the third over off Ankit Rajpoot, the highlight of it being Rohit launching one into the orbit over the bowler's head.
Debutant pacer Karthik Tyagi (1/36) removed De Kock in his very first over to provide the much-needed breakthrough.
Yadav at the other end smashed Tyagi for three boundaries in ninth over. His innings comprised 11 fours and two sixes.
However, leggie Shreyas Gopal (2/28) struck twice in as many balls removing Rohit and Ishan Kishan (0) to leave Mumbai at 88 for three in the 10th over.
While Rohit gave a sitter to Rahul Tewatia at long-on, Sanju Samson took a running catch at extra-cover to send Kishan back.
Yadav kept playing his shots and scored successive boundaries off Gopal in the 12th over. It became 117 for four after Krunal Pandya fell cheaply.
Yadav, however, kept launching into the RR attack with great gusto and was particularly brutal on Tom Curran (0/33) in the 18th over that went for 19 runs.
He was ably supported by Hardik, who produced a timely cameo.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Traffic fraud: Fake 'no-entry' sticker racket busted in Delhi, mastermind among 3 held
New Delhi (PTI): Police here have busted a crime syndicate involved in traffic fraud and extortion, arresting three people including the alleged mastermind who sold fake stickers to help commercial vehicles bypass no-entry restrictions, an official said on Saturday.
The police said they dismantled a third organised syndicate linked to traffic-related frauds, with the arrest of Rinku Rana alias Bhushan, his associate Sonu Sharma and Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, who was also connected to another extortion syndicate.
According to the police, Rinku Rana was running a well-organised network that facilitated the movement of commercial goods vehicles during restricted hours by selling fake 'marka' or stickers for Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per vehicle every month. The stickers were falsely projected as authorisation to evade traffic challans.
During raids, the police recovered Rs 31 lakh in cash, property documents worth several crores of rupees, over 500 fake stickers and six mobile phones allegedly used to operate the syndicate.
The crackdown followed a complaint filed by a traffic police officer in April this year after a commercial vehicle tried to evade checking by producing a fake sticker claiming exemption from enforcement action.
Investigation revealed that social media groups were being used to coordinate the illegal movement of vehicles and alert drivers about traffic police checkpoints, police said.
"A parallel system was being run to cheat drivers and vehicle owners while undermining traffic enforcement. On the basis of evidence, provisions related to organised crime under the BNS were invoked," a senior police officer said.
Sonu Sharma, the police said, managed social media groups through which stickers were sold and real-time alerts were circulated regarding traffic police movement. He also acted as a link between Rana and drivers operating in the field.
In a related development, Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, an associate of Rajkumar alias Raju Meena, who was earlier arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), was also apprehended.
Mukesh allegedly helped extort money from transporters and was involved in blackmailing traffic police personnel by recording enforcement actions, the police said.
Investigators alleged the syndicate led by Rajkumar deployed drivers to deliberately violate traffic rules and secretly record police officials during challans, later using manipulated videos to extort money under threat of false allegations.
The police said that in total, eight accused belonging to three different organised crime syndicates linked to traffic frauds and extortion have been arrested so far.
Further investigation is underway to trace the remaining members, conduct financial probes, and analyse digital evidence recovered during the raids, officials added.
