Dasun Shanaka ensured RR didn’t spend too long worrying about the wickets they had lost, with a bit of help from ordinary MI bowling. Ghazanfar and Raghu Sharma fed him slot balls that he launched down the ground for six, and Shardul Thakur sent down a short ball down the leg side that he helped over fine leg for another six. Shanaka’s 15-ball 29 was an important innings, coming when Dhruv Jurel endured another slow start. Jurel eventually hit Ghazanfar for two fours and a six in the 12th over before getting yorked by Corbin Bosch in the 13th for 38 off 26 balls.

RR have often underutilised Archer’s batting ability, and now they seemed to be erring in the other direction entirely, sending him in ahead of two recognised batters with 7.1 overs remaining.

But Archer’s right-handedness may have been one reason for this – MI could have sneaked in an over of Jacks against Dubey or Jadeja. The other could have just been his pure ball-striking ability on a slow pitch where MI were looking to bowl into the pitch as much as possible. Archer’s height, stable base, and baseball-style swing were instrumental in his being able to hit three sixes off that kind of delivery, all either pulled or flat-batted down the ground.

Thakur eventually dismissed him with a hard-length ball that climbed high enough to force a miscue, but by then Archer had given RR serious momentum. Jadeja and Nandre Burger took the baton from him and collected 30 off the last two overs. RR scored 73 off their last five.

Archer’s new-ball wickets came from dissimilar deliveries that did similar things. To Rohit Sharma, he bowled what seemed an attempted inswinger that pitched and seamed away from the fuller side of a good length. To Naman Dhir he bowled a fast legcutter on the line of the stumps. Both straightened after angling into the batter. Rohit nicked off while attempting to work the ball leg side, and Dhir was bowled swiping across the line.

When Burger got one to nip into Ryan Rickelton and induce him to miscue a catch to midwicket off the inside half of his bat, MI were 24 for 3. That became 38 for 4 when Brijesh Sharma sneaked an unplayable, in-ducking shooter through Tilak Varma in the final over of the powerplay. RR seemed to have a foot in the playoffs.

Suryakumar Yadav began his innings with a trademark scoop to the fine-leg boundary. It was the eighth time he had hit his first ball to the boundary in IPL 2026. As long as he was in, MI still had a chance, and even if he wasn’t demonstrating the range of his peak version, he still played a breathtaking shot from time to time, such as when he punched Jadeja inside-out for a flat six over the covers.

He put on 63 with Jacks for the fourth wicket before Yash Raj Punja ended the partnership in the 12th over with a bravely flighted wide legbreak right after getting hit for six. RR may have wondered if the wicket of Jacks had been counter-productive, because Pandya walked in and began to smoke the ball to all parts. He hit Punja for two sixes in his first over in the crease, then pulled Shanaka for two fours in the 13th. By the end of that over, he was batting on 25 off seven balls and MI needed 75 off 42.

The equation had come down to 59 off 30 when Archer came back for his final over. He struck with his fourth ball, with a delivery not dissimilar to the one that had dismissed him. Hard length, into the pitch, climbing awkwardly towards Pandya’s back shoulder. The attempted flat-bat hit ended up as a simple catch to long-on, and RR could breathe again.

Victory swiftly became a formality thereafter, with Bosch failing to nail a slog-sweep off Punja in the 17th over and Suryakumar – who scored just 10 off 10 after reaching his fifty in 32 balls – toe-ending an attempted pull back to Burger for a return catch in the 18th.

Brief scores:
Rajasthan Royals 205 for 8 in 20 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 27, Dhruv Jurel 38, Riyan Parag 14, Dasun Shanaka 29, Donovan Fereirra 18,  Jofra Archer 32, Ravindra Jadeja 19*, Nandre Burger 10*; Shardul Thakur 2-41, Deepak Chahar 2-43, Will Jacks 1-12, AM Ghazanfar 1-45, Corbin Bosch 1-38) beat Mumbai Indians 175 for 9 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 12, Suryakumar Yadav 60, Will Jacks 33, Hardik Pandya 34, Shardul Thakur 10*; Jofra Archer 3-17, Brijesh Sharma 2-26, Nandre Burger 2-43, Yash Raj Punja 2-44) by 30 runs

[Cricinfo]