In a touching moment after a tough outing in Jaipur, Rajasthan Royals' pacer Akash Madhwal was seen folding his hands in a respectful greeting to Rohit Sharma, his former captain at Mumbai Indians. The brief interaction between the two, which included Rohit pointing toward his wife Ritika Sajdeh in the stands and Madhwal repeating the gesture, quickly captured fans' attention online, evoking memories of the young fast bowler's breakout IPL season.
Beside the gesture Madhwal also ensured that he got his jersey signed by his former skipper
Madhwal, now part of the Royals setup, had made his IPL debut under Rohit’s leadership two seasons ago. That campaign included a historic spell 5 for 5 against Lucknow Super Giants the best-ever performance by an uncapped Indian in the league. On Thursday night, however, the script played out very differently.
Playing his first match of the IPL 2025 season, Madhwal went wicketless and conceded 39 runs in four overs as the Royals suffered a crushing 100-run defeat at home against Mumbai Indians. The match also featured two other former Mumbai bowlers in Rajasthan’s lineup Kumar Kartikeya and Jofra Archer
Mumbai Indians end Rajasthan Royals campaign
For the Mumbai Indians, the win marked a dramatic turnaround. After sitting in ninth place just a few weeks into the tournament, the Hardik Pandya-led side has now strung together seven consecutive victories. Their dominant win in Jaipur propelled them to the top of the points table and officially knocked the Royals out of playoff contention.
Openers Rohit Sharma (53 off 36 balls) and Ryan Rickelton (61 off 38) struck sublime half-centuries before Suryakumar Yadav (48 not out off 23) and Hardik Pandya (48 not out off 23) went on the offensive to power Mumbai Indians to 217 for two.
In reply, Rajasthan, who had chased down 210 against the Gujarat Titans three nights back at the same venue, were bundled for 117 in 16.1 overs. It was their eighth defeat in 11 matches.
