BENGALURU: Irrespective of the bowling attack, defending a score at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium is mostly tricky. Given the depth in Rajasthan Royals’ batting line-up, Royal Challengers Bangalore’s 189/5 seemed achievable here on Sunday.
Set up by an impressive 67-ball 127-run third-wicket partnership between Glenn Maxwell (77; 44b, 6x4, 4x6) and Faf Du Plessis (62; 39b, 8x4, 2x6) earlier, the home team bowlers, who have been a subject of criticism, delivered the goods to steer RCB to their fourth win of the season.
Royals finished with 182/6 to hand the hosts a seven-run win.
At one point, the Royals looked comfortable with Yashasvi Jaiswal (47; 37b, 5x4, 2x6) and Devdutt Padikkal (52; 34b, 7x4, 1x6) keeping them on course. After 10 overs, they were 92/1. But pacer Harshal Patel (3/32), the Impact Player, and Wanindu Hasaranga bowled some tight middle overs coupled with the visitors’ meltdown, which
brought the equation down to a tough 61 off four overs.
The Royals fell short as big hitters Sanju Samson (22) and Shimron Hetmyer (3) were left high and dry in the chase. Though RCB bowlers came good in crunch situations, the foundation was laid by Du Plessis and Maxwell.
It was not an easy task for the two imports after suffering a nightmare start. RCB lost the wicket of Virat Kohli, who was trapped leg before by Trent Boult, in the first ball of the match. The situation worsened with the Kiwi pacer scalping Shahbaz Ahmad in his next over, reducing the home team to 12/2.
But what followed for the next 11 overs was a counterattack masterclass from the duo, — Du Plessis and Maxwell — who scored at the rate of knots. They were involved in a third-wicket partnership which yielded 127 runs off 67 balls.
The Australian took the aggressive aerial route while the South African played some good cricketing shots along the ground to put the visitors on the backfoot as RCB raced to 62/2 in the powerplay. The two batters dealt in boundaries for the majority of their stay.
Maxwell completed his fifty in 27 balls while Du Plessis brought up his fifth half-century of the season in 31 deliveries. However, both perished in a matter of 12 balls while trying to up the ante, exposing the brittle middle order, which managed an embarrassing 33 runs in the last five overs to limp towards 189, which
eventually proved to be enough.
(AI image)
