The 23-year-old opener, who had been under pressure after a string of low scores (1, 29, 4) in the first three games, bounced back with a fiery 44-ball innings laced with three fours and five sixes. His return to form comes amidst off-field chatter surrounding his unexpected move to Goa, which had triggered speculation of a fallout with Mumbai cricket.

Blocking out the noise, Jaiswal paired up with skipper Sanju Samson (38 off 26) to give Rajasthan their best start of the season—an 89-run opening stand after Shreyas Iyer opted to field first.

Though Lockie Ferguson struck twice in the middle overs—removing both Samson and Jaiswal—along with the dismissal of Nitish Rana (12), RR’s momentum was reignited by Riyan Parag. The in-form middle-order batter smashed an unbeaten 43 off just 25 balls, including three sixes and three fours, to finish the innings with a flourish.

Jaiswal’s knock was particularly impressive as he weathered a testing opening over from Arshdeep Singh before going on the attack. Marco Jansen bore the brunt of the onslaught, with Jaiswal unleashing an upper-cut six over the keeper’s head and a clean strike over deep square leg

Jaiswal brought up his 10th IPL fifty with a crisp drive off Yuzvendra Chahal and continued to punish Marcus Stoinis with successive boundaries. However, just as he looked set for a bigger total, Ferguson deceived him with a knuckle ball that stayed low and crashed into the stumps.