IPL 2019: Rajasthan Bag Their First Win, Bangalore Slump Further
Chasing 159 for their first win of the season, Rajasthan reached the target with seven wickets to spare.
- Rajasthan Royals defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by 7 wickets to register their first win of this IPL season.
- Royal Challengers Bangalore: 158 for 4 in 20 overs (Parthiv Patel 67, Marcus Stoinis 31 not out; Shreyas Gopal 3/12).
- Rajasthan Royals: 164 for 3 in 19.5 overs. (J Buttler 59, S Smith 38; Y Chahal 2/17).
Leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal’s heroics with ball in the first innings followed by Jos Buttler 59 saw Rajasthan Royals finally registering their first win of this IPL season with a seven-wicket victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Jaipur on Tuesday.
Gopal accounted for three wickets, including that of Virat Kohli (23) and AB de Villiers (13), conceding just 12 runs in his four-quota over to unsettle RCB.
Meanwhile, Kohli’s RCB registered their fourth straight loss in the season and continue to languish at the bottom of the table. Things are becoming tougher for Kohli and his men as they are unable to find the winning formulae. Lack of runs from both Kohli and de Villiers is another cause of concern for the side.
Chasing 159, Jos Buttler and Ajinkya Rahane started positively for Rajasthan. The duo added a fifty-run stand inside the batting powerplay with both batsmen going great guns. RCB did a couple of misfields and skipper Kohli dropped his opposite number to give him an early life in the chase.
However, RCB broke through Yuzvendra Chahal just after the powerplay. He dismissed Rahane in his very first over with a googly and the Rajasthan skipper was found plumb in front. Buttler continued his merry way and reached yet another fifty, thereby continuing his good form. He was finally dismissed on 59 by Chahal who picked up his second wicket of the match.
The Rajasthan innings was then carried forward by Steve Smith along with Rahul Tripathi who joined him at the wicket. Chahal finished his spell with 2 for 17 and had Smith dropped by Umesh Yadav off his final over.
With 34 required from 24 balls, Tripathi and Smith ensured that Royals get past the score comfortably. However, Rajasthan lost Smith in the final ball of the 19th over. With 5 needed of 6, RCB managed to take the game to the last over, however ended up losing the game.
Earlier, Playing with a cautious approach, Kohli was happy working the ball around. Parthiv was aggressor of the two. Parhtiv hit three boundaries in Jofra Archer's first over as RCB finished the Powerplay overs with 48 runs on the board.
Immediately after that, Gopal was introduced into the attack and he began to trouble the Indian captain with his googlies. Gopal deceived Kohli with one, which went through the gates. The leg-spinner returned and this time got rid of de Villiers with another wrong one which stopped a bit as the South African hit it straight back to Gopal, who bowled a rare wicket-maiden. Left-handed Shimron Hetmyer became his third victim when he edged one away-going delivery and Jos Buttler took a sharp catch behind the wicket.
It was opener Parthiv who resisted the Royals attack with aplomb, hitting a belligerent 67 off 41 balls with nine boundaries and six to help his side put 158 for four after being sent in to bat. Marcus Stoinis (31 not out) too played a key part in shoring up team's total, add 32 quick runs in partnership with Moeen Ali (18).
(With inputs from PTI)
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