Maxwell, du Plessis team up as RCB take Royals down by 7 runs
Bengaluru, April 23
A late charge led by a cameo from Dhruv Jurel was not enough for Rajasthan Royals as a century stand between captain Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell set up a thrilling seven-run win for Royal Challengers Bangalore in their IPL match here today.
Invited to bat, Maxwell (77 off 44 balls) and du Plessis (62 off 39 balls) shared 127 runs for the third wicket from only 66 deliveries to power Bangalore to 189/9 in 20 overs.
Devdutt Padikkal (52 off 34 balls) struck his maiden half-century of the season and Yashasvi Jaiswal made 47 for a 98-run partnership for the second wicket but Rajasthan were lagging behind in the run chase before gaining momentum in the last five overs.
Jurel played a small cameo (34 not out off 16 balls) as Rajasthan scored 61 runs off the last five overs, losing three wickets in the process. However, they fell short by seven runs in the end as they reached 182/6 in 20 overs.
Rajasthan needed 20 runs off the final over bowled by Harshal Patel but could score only 12. They suffered their third defeat in seven matches but remained at the top of the points table due to a superior net run-rate (0.844).
Harshal (4-0-32-3) was the pick of the bowlers for Bangalore while David Willey (4-0-26-1) and Mohammed Siraj (4-0-39-1) also played their parts well.
Bangalore dealt a huge blow to Rajasthan when Siraj bowled a nip-backer to beat the defence of the dangerous Jos Buttler, cleaning him up for a two-ball duck in the first over.
Having scored consistently in the last few matches, Padikkal ended his half-century drought as he struck a six and seven fours during his innings. Padikkal was dismissed by Willey, with Virat Kohli taking his 100th catch in the IPL.
Only two players — Suresh Raina (109 catches in 205 matches) and Kieron Pollard (103 catches in 189 matches) — have taken more catches than Kohli in the IPL’s history.
Jaiswal played some spectacular strokes in the Powerplay after which they were placed at 47/1.
Brief scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore: 189/9 in 20 overs (Maxwell 77, Du Plessis 62; Boult 2/41); Rajasthan Royals: 182/6 in 20 overs (Padikkal 52, Jaiswal 47; Harshal 3/32).
