Royalty graces the Evening
Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Rajasthan Royals, Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
Royal Challengers Bangalore 189 for 3 (Dilshan 76*, de Villiers 59*) beat Rajasthan Royals 143 for 7 (Dravid 58, Appanna 4-19) by 46 runs.
De Villiers and Dilshan turn the match around in their favour
It was a ROYAL evening of cricket where nothing went wrong for the visiting team, Royal Challengers Bangalore. They batted fielded and bowled perfectly. After witnessing a series of nail biting thrillers, this was a match which saw the home team being thrashed at their own fortress. Batting first, RCB posted a mammoth 189 in 20 overs. Fierce hitting by AB D Villiers and Tilkrathane Dilshan particularly from the 16th to 20th helped the team Bangalore achieve the total. At one stage of the inning Bangalore were 89/3 in 13 overs. Careless batting by Chris Gayle and Mayank Agarwal and poor form of Virat Kohli were chiefly responsible for the poor start. Gayle opened the innings along with Dilshan. But much to the disappointment of the crowd, he fell cheaply for 16 of as many deliveries. The highlight of the RR bowling was Brad Hogg. He picked up 2 wickets in the first 2 overs of his spell. His joy knew no bounds as made the “Ganguly Run” around the field. But hat didn’t help him to finish his spell well. In the 18th over of the match he gave away a crucial 15 runs. At the end of that over team Bangalore were looking good for 160, but the 19th over bowled by Trivedi gave away 21 runs and A.B. De Villiers brought up his 50 of just 21 balls trying another of the now-getting-famous “Vilscoop”.
Rahul Dravids efforts were in vain
No team has beaten the same opponent twice in this IPL so far. RCB would have been happy to know that the odds were in their favour, going by that stat. But Team Vettori wouold also know that 189 is a good total but not one that would make you rest your back. Their bowlers faced the heat early on. Rajasthan got off to a good start with Rahul Dravid hitting most of the shots in the power play forcing Daniel Vettori to take the strategic timeout as early as the 6th over of the innings itself. Dravid was at his best bringing up his 50 in just33 balls but he was soon caught by a superb catch by Apanna. The superstar of the IPL so far – Ajinkya Rahane failed in the match scoring just 6 runs of 11 balls. Owais Shah too couldn’t prove to be handy as the run rate kept increasing by each over. With none of the batsmen being able to carry Dravid’s effort forward, Rajasthan Royals finished with 143/7 in 20 overs.
This loss for the Rajasthan Royals means that they have now won 4 out of their 8 games. Considering the good start they had to this tournament, they will have to do some serious thinking to make sure the other teams do not take lead of them. Royal Challengers Bangalore have a 3 match winning streak with this win, to open up the tournament further. Bangalore next face Chennai Super Kings at their home ground looking to continue their good form. They will have to mind the fact that CSK too are coming from 2 consecutive wins. Rajasthan next face Delhi Daredevils on 29th April at the Ferosh Shah Kotla, Delhi. As we head to the halfway mark of the tournament, every team would want to look strong and get some crucial wins to stay at the top 2 before entering the end of the league stages.
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