IPL 2025: Jofra Archer's lone resistance in vain as RR become 2nd team officially out of Playoff race

A 100 runs win and now sitting at the top of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 points table - Mumbai Indians (MI) who started with losses, found their momentum and now there is no stopping them. However, for their opponents Rajasthan Royals (RR), it was a whole different story as they become the 2nd team to be officially knocked out of the Playoff race following Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

RR faltered in all departs, especially their batting which had to chase down the target of 218 runs in 20 overs. Fans can't believe their best batter turned out to be pacer Jofra Archer who scored 30 off 27 balls smashing 2 fours and 2 sixes.

6?? on the trot & now they¡¯re on ?

A massive 1?0?0?-run win for #MI to sit right where they want to ?

Scorecard ? https://t.co/t4j49gXHDu#TATAIPL | #RRvMI | @mipaltan pic.twitter.com/20KEle7S6n

¡ª IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 1, 2025

RR's batting collapse

There were no heroics from 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi, as he departed for a duck while his partner Yashasvi Jaiswal struck two sixes but was bowled for 13 off 6.

Jasprit Bumrah claimed two key wickets¡ªRiyan Parag (16 off 8) and Shimron Hetmyer (0 off 1)¡ªin a single over, marking the first time this season that a team lost five wickets inside the powerplay as Nitish Rana (9 off 11) also walked back.

Impact Player Karn Sharma made the most of his opportunity as he picked up three crucial wickets: Dhruv Jurel (11 off 11), Maheesh Theekshana (2 off 9), and Kumar Kartikeya (2 off 4).

Jofra Archer put on a fight, but he alone could not do much against the ruthless MI and eventually got dismissed as RR were bundled out for 117 runs in 16.1 overs.

Fans react

Netizens, especially on X (formerly known as Twitter), couldn't believe that RR's batting had come down to relying on lower-order batter Jofra Archer.

One said, "Best batter of RR tonight is a bowler ¡ª Jofra Archer. Let that sink in. Only he managed to score around 30 runs. Pathetic performance by RR."

Best batter of RR tonight is a bowler ¡®Jofra Archer¡¯ . Let that sink .
Only he managed to score some 30 runs. Pathetic performance by RR . #RRvsMI #MIvsRR

¡ª Yukti Kaushik (@sweetpotayayto) May 1, 2025

Another said, "What an innings by Jofra Archer, unfortunately Boult finally got him¡­"

What an inning by Jofra Archer ? ? unfortunately Boult get him finnally...

¡ª Avanish Dwivedi (@avanishdwivedi3) May 1, 2025

One wrote, "Jofra Archer has played 26 balls so far ¡ª almost as many as all the other RR batters combined."

Jofra Archer has played 26 balls till now, Almost equal to the balls played by all batters of RR#RRvsMI #RRvMI #MIvsRR #MIvRR https://t.co/3nIih6aqAt

¡ª Raja (@_raja_kumar) May 1, 2025

Teams

Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag(c), Dhruv Jurel(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Impact Subs: Shubham Dubey, Tushar Deshpande, Kunal Singh Rathore, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Kwena Maphaka

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Ryan Rickelton(w), Rohit Sharma, Will Jacks, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Naman Dhir, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
Impact Subs: Raj Bawa, Satyanarayana Raju, Robin Minz, Reece Topley, Karn Sharma

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