DLF IPL Season 5 - Match 18
Royal Challengers Bangalore Vs Rajasthan Royals at Bengaluru
Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to bat on this excellent batting track. Surprisingly it was a cautious start from the Royals as they scored runs at a snail's pace. Dravid got out for 25 off 32 balls in the 11th over, when the score was 62. Owais Shah joined Rahane and thereafter there was a run feast and both of them carted the RCB bowlers all around the park. Rahane completed the first century of the season remaining unbeaten on 103 off just 60 deliveries. Owais Shah played equally well scoring 60 off 26 deliveries and their combined effort enabled the Royals post a mammoth total of 195/2 in the allotted 20 overs. In such a high scoring game, Zaheer Khan had an impressive figures of 1/15 and Daniel Vettori was also good with attractive figures of 1/20 in their full quota of overs. RCB's efforts to use Gayle as a bowler backfired as he went for 21 runs in his solitary over, which clearly showed that nothing is working well for the RCB right now. It was Kohli's forgettable over against CSK and it is Gayle's turn to upset RCB's plans.
RCB's chase was brisk with Mayank Agarwal taking majority of the strike. He fell after scoring 34 off 21 deliveries. Gayle was clean bowled in the same over scoring just 8 off 9 deliveries. This impressive over was bowled by Pankaj Singh. Kohli played well briefly before getting out for 22 off 18 deliveries. But AB De Villiers disappointed getting out for 4 runs. Saurabh Tiwary and Kaif tried to steady the innings. But the required run rate was climbing all the time. Tiwary and Kaif could not provide the necessary impetus to bring down the required rate. There was no resistance from the other batsmen once Tiwary and Kaif got out. Rahane's golden fingers sealed RCB's fate as he took the catch to dismiss the last man Murali. Siddharth Trivedi, for the first time in the series, bowled brilliantly capturing the wickets of Kohli, De Villers, Saurabh Tiwary and Daniel Vettori. He achieved excellent bowling figures of 4/25 in his quota of 4 overs. Royals won by 59 runs damaging RCB's Net Run Rate considerably.
Ironically three teams from neighbouring states i.e. CSK, RCB and Deccan Chargers languish at the bottom of the table, coinciding with the shape of India map narrowing towards its south. KXIP however decided to give them company staying at the 7th Place. Hopefully things will improve for them from now on and enable them to climb up to a better position.
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