Rajasthan Royals bowlers pressed themselves on Royal Challengers Bangalore bowlers to help defend the 144-run target to record a 29-run win at the MCA Stadium in Pune on Tuesday – their sixth victory of the season, which has propelled them to the top of the points table once again.
Kuldeep Sen and R Ashwin combined to capture seven wickets and keep RCB’s threat in the run chase at bay, dowing them to their fourth loss in nine games after Riyan Parag produced a quick unbroken half-century to propel Royals in the closing overs.
Destructive Jos
After being called in to bat, Rajasthan Royals’ highly reliant top order was cleaned off early.
In the second over, Mohammad Siraj caught Devdutt Padikkal leg-before for a run-a-ball 7, then in the fourth over, the pacer got promotion No. 3 R Ashwin to top edge a pull and gets him caught after a quick 9-ball 17.
Before succumbing, Ashwin took advantage of the field limitations and unleashed some magnificent strokes, including four boundaries off Siraj.
The biggest blow to RR came in the next over, when Jos Buttler, the season’s leading run-getter, pushed Hazlewood to the fielder at mid-on due to a lack of space off a rising delivery.
Despite a brief burst of brilliance from Sanju Samson, the Royals were off to a shaky start.
Daryl Mitchell batting
Daryl Mitchell, the Royals’ newest middle-order batter and sixth bowling option, struggled to time the ball and continued to mush singles to deep fielders until holing out for 16 off 24 in the 15th over.
At 99 for 5, the Royals were in a bit of a pickle, but it was a good place to start for Shimron Hetmyer, who had a strike rate in the 170s and hadn’t been removed for less than 25 runs until today.
After miscuing a slog-sweep off a Hasaranga wrong’un, the law of averages finally caught up with him, and he was out for three innings.
Riyan Parag plays one through the offside in the IPL 2022 match between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Pune on April 26, 2022.
Destructive balling by RR
In beneficial circumstances, it is extremely effective. In particular, Ashwin was difficult to dismiss and kept chipping in with wickets in the middle overs, cleaning up Rajat Patidar with a carrom-ball before having Suyash Prabhudessai hole out to the long-off fielder.
Dinesh Karthik was run out before Shahbaz Ahmed and Wanindu Hasaranga could put up a fight in vain, as their attempted run chase struggled to locate a track.
Kuldeep Sen bowled hard lengths and was impressed with his pace.
With the pitch holding up a little better, shot-making got more difficult, and he took advantage of the batters’ mistakes to take four wickets.
Soon after the Powerplay, he had Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell removed off successive deliveries.
As a result, Karthik was called to the crease, and in the 13th over, a strong sweep for four off Chahal signaled that RCB were far from out.
A mix-up with Shahbaz left Chahal in mid-pitch when the ball was lobbed into his hands two balls later.
Chahal dropped the ball but is dragged into the stumps, almost breaking Karthik’s wicket, who failed to see the blunder in time and was unable to retake his crease.
Source: espncricinfo.com
