RCB ride on a bowling masterclass to register historic 112-run win against RR at Jaipur

In a must-win encounter for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, they romped over the Rajasthan Royals in clinical fashion, inflicting severe wounds on their playoff aspirations.

On a track that saw the RCB batsmen struggling to hit their stride early on, there were a handful of decent performances that kept the visitors very much in the game to put up a challenging target, before the bowlers would produce a masterclass to clinch a 112-run win that propelled their net run rate to a staggering +0.166.

Winning the toss, Faf du Plessis opted to bat first. There were three changes to the side that took on Mumbai Indians as Wayne Parnell, Michael Bracewell and Karn Sharma came in place of Josh Hazlewood, Wanindu Hasaranga and Vyshak Vijaykumar. The opening pair of Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli started on a vigilant note with the RCB skipper doing the heavy lifting while Kohli dropped anchor at the other end.

The opening pair stitched together another half-century stand and seemed well in control until Virat Kohli was outdone by KM Asif for 18. However, the fall of Kohli’s wicket did very little to deter the feisty spirit of RCB as Glenn Maxwell was quick to get in the groove and fired home some meaty blows alongside a watchful Faf, who was happy to play second fiddle but also produced some shots of his own.

The pair of Faf and Maxi knitted together 69 runs for the second wicket and were well-stationed for a grandstand finish where things came to a sudden standstill for RCB. Four quick blows that saw Faf (55), Mahipal Lomror (1), Dinesh Karthik (0) and Maxwell (54) dismissed in quick fashion left RCB reeling at 137/5 from a position of strength at 120/1.

Just when the hosts thought that they had the game in control is when once again the scales tipped in favour of RCB with a magical display from Anuj Rawat who walked in late and produced a gem of an innings that saw him firing home an unbeaten 29 from just 11 deliveries. RCB finished at 171/5, a total that had promise in it backed by a shrewd observation from Hesson, who pointed out that there was some sharp turn that the track was generating for a while.

Chasing 172, even before the Royals could get to rumble, they were left with a nasty sock in the jaw in the form of Yashasvi Jaiswal departing for a silver duck against Mohammed Siraj. Not long after, Jos Buttler (0) was on his way back to the pavilion too as Wayne Parnell got the first of his three scalps that were about to leave Rajasthan teetering at the edge of chaos.

Wayne Parnell struck again in quick succession, this time claiming the huge scalp of Sanju Samson (4) while Bracewell chimed in with the crucial wicket of Devdutt Padikkal (4) as RR were struggling at 20/4.

Adding further salt to the wounds of the Royals, Joe Root (10) was sent on his way back for a battling tenner while Dhruv Jurel pulled a ball from Bracewell straight to Lomror at deep mid-wicket to depart for a seven-ball 1. With RR having stepped into quicksand, it seemed like they would fold for the IPL’s lowest score of 49, but three sixes from Shimron Hetmyer off Karn Sharma took them to 50 before a stunning reverse flick from Rawat caught R Ashwin short of his crease. 

It didn’t take long for the Royal Challengers Bangalore to snuff out the remaining wickets as Glenn Maxwell removed Shimron Hetmyer (35), post which Karn Sharma struck twice to remove Adam Zampa (2) and KM Asif (0) in the same over as RCB clinched a historical victory by 112 runs to skyrocket their net run rate past the Royals.

They also clinched the fifth position to now spawn a race to the play-offs against Lucknow Super Giants, who are a point ahead of the Royal Challengers and will be hoping to keep things as it is if they are to make the final dash for the top four.