By Avinash Kr Atish

Mumbai, May 1 (IANS): In cricket, it's often said that captains should have attacking mindset and use their best resource when they have modest totals on the board but Rajasthan Royals skipper took the defensive approach and gave Daryl Mitchell an over at a crucial juncture, which eventually proved costly against Mumbai Indians in an IPL 2022 match.

Chasing a target of 159 runs for victory, Mumbai were in a spot of bother after losing the wickets of both openers -- Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan -- inside the powerplay. But Samson brought Mitchell into the attack in the seventh over of the innings, which gave breathing space to Mumbai.

Suryakumar Yadav greeted Mitchell with a four in his first delivery and then took a single in the next one. Tilak Varma took the aerial route and smashed the ball for the maximum in the third and got a single in the fourth delivery. Suryakumar was back on strike and he smashed back-to-back boundaries in the last two balls.

Overall, a total of 20 runs came off the seventh over and Mumbai got the much-needed push from thereon and both Suryakumar and Tilak didn't have to take the extra risk against the main Royals bowlers.

Both batters knuckled down and kept the scorecard chugging along.

Suryakumar, especially, swept the spinners off their lengths, bringing out his wrists against pace. He kept picking boundaries every time there was a semblance of pressure on the batters. In the end, Suryakumar and Tilak added 81 runs for the third wicket and played a vital role in Mumbai Indians' five-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals in match No 44 of the IPL 2022 at the Dr DY Patil Stadium on Saturday.

It's not that a captain has used his part-time bowling option during the middle phase for the first time, but the fact that Samson had five quality bowlers in Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Sen -- who have constantly done well for Rajasthan this season -- adds to the mystery of giving the ball to Mitchell.

Samson could have avoided using a part-time option in Mitchell at the juncture when Mumbai were under pressure as Boult eventually didn't bowl his full quota of four overs.

Speaking after the game, Samson said that they needed a few more runs with the bat.

"We could have scored a few more runs. Dew came in and it was tough to bowl as the ball was getting wet. We changed the ball as it was getting really wet. Different venues are playing in different ways. Batting first here was tough as it was two-paced. Few more runs with the bat would have helped," said the Rajasthan Royals captain at the post-match presentation.

It was Mumbai's first win in their ninth game of the ongoing IPL 2022 season. On the other hand, Rajasthan are at second spot on the points table with six wins from nine matches.

Mumbai Indians have a five-day break before their next game against table-toppers Gujarat Titans at the Brabourne Stadium on May 6. The Royals, meanwhile, have only a day's break before their game against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium on May 2.