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.
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EC seeks BJP's response on Opposition charge of PM Modi violating model code
New Delhi (PTI): Taking cognisance for the first time of a model code violation allegation against a prime minister, the Election Commission on Thursday asked the BJP to respond to complaints filed by opposition parties wherein they have accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of delivering a divisive and defamatory speech in Rajasthan's Banswara.
At the same time, the poll panel also asked the Congress to respond to complaints filed by the BJP against the main opposition party's president Mallikarjun Kharge and its senior leader Rahul Gandhi regarding their respective remarks.
In its letter addressed to BJP President J P Nadda, the Election Commission asked him to respond by Monday to complaints filed by the Congress, CPI and CPI (ML) regarding the remarks made by Modi on April 21 in Banswara.
It also asked Nadda to bring to the notice of all star campaigners of the party to "set high standards of political discourse and observe provisions of model code of conduct in letter and spirit".
Officials said it is the first time that the panel has taken cognisance of a complaint against any prime minister. The Election Commission has invoked provisions of the Representation of the People Act to hold party presidents as the first step to rein in star campaigners.
It wrote a similarly-worded letter separately to the Congress president with regard to allegations levelled by the BJP against him and Gandhi.
The letters from the EC to the two-party presidents did not directly name either Modi, Gandhi or Kharge, but the representations received by it were attached to the respective letters and they contained details of allegations against the three leaders.
In its complaint to the EC, the Congress said that Modi in his speech had alleged that Congress wanted to redistribute the wealth of the people to Muslims and that the opposition party won't even spare the 'mangalsutra' of women.
The BJP, on the other hand, had written to EC that Gandhi levelled malafide and utterly sinister allegations against Modi during a speech in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
It also accused Kharge of violating the model code by claiming that he was not invited to the Ram temple consecration ceremony due to discrimination against SCs and STs.
