Jos Buttler smashed unbeaten 94 off 53 balls as Rajasthan Royals defeated Mumbai Indians by seven wickets. Chasing 169, Royals reached the target in 18th over. Buttler scored his fifth consecutive fifty in this year’s IPL to bat Mumbai Indians out of the contest. With this win RR now move to fifth place while MI drops to sixth on IPL 2018 points table. Meanwhile, following RR’s victory Chennai Super kings have qualified for the playoffs and now two spots are up for grabs.

Despite losing D Arcy Short early Royals looked comfortable in the chase. Buttler along with skipper Ajinkya Rahane added 105 runs for the second wicket and took control of the match. Buttler carried his bat through and during his stay smashed nine fours and five sixes.

Earlier, asked to bat first, Mumbai were off to steady start with Evin Lewis and Suryakumar Yadav coming up with an opening partnership of 87 runs off 64 balls. Lewis, who narrowly survived being caught by Stuart Binny in the third over, made good use of the reprieve to blast his way to 60 runs off 42 deliveries. His quick-fire knock included four boundaries and as many sixes. You can watch video highlights of MI vs RR here.

Suryakumar, who also got an early let-off, being dropped by Krishna Gowtham off Dhawal Kulkarni early in the second over, went on to post a steady 38 off 31 deliveries. Although the opening duo gave the hosts a strong platform for a big total, the rest of the Mumbai batsmen failed to capitalise.

Watch Rajasthan Royals' winning moments here 

The Rajasthan bowlers did well to bag five wickets over the next six overs to make a strong comeback. Jofra Archer was the most impressive of the bunch, giving away a mere 16 runs in his four overs while claiming the crucial wickets of Suryakumar and Rohit Sharma.

Fellow pacer Ben Stokes bowled well in the late stages to return figures of 2/26. Indian pacers Jaydev Unadkat and Dhawal Kulkarni also got a wicket each as Mumbai seemed in real danger of failing to cross the 150-run mark. However, Hardik Pandya helped the hosts to a competitive total with a late charge, scoring 36 runs off 21 balls before holing out to Stokes in the penultimate ball of the innings. (With IANS inputs).

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 14, 2018 12:17 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).