Rajasthan Royals succumbed to 109 in their attempt at reaching a mammoth 181 set by Royal Challengers in the Eliminator match of the Indian Premier league at the MCA International Stadium in Pune on Wednesday.
With the 71-run win, Royal Challengers face Chennai Super Kings in the second Qualifier in Ranchi on Friday. The winner of that match will get a place in the Final at Eden Gardens on Sunday.
Royal Challengers Bangalore were put in a commanding position by AB de Villiers (66) and Mandeep Singh (53) with the duo putting together 113 runs from 67 deliveries.
Chasing over nine runs an over, Rajasthan never looked in command and saw wickets tumble at regular intervals. Only Ajinkya Rahane provided some battle with his run a ball 42 but never found support at the other end.
Opener Shane Watson fell early to Sreenath Arvind who came in for Ashok Dinda. In an attempt at fending off a ball outside off, he got an edge that was comfortably held by wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik.
Sanju Samson followed soon after when he tried to play off a short pitched delivery from Harshal Patel aimed at his body but didn’t find enough room to get a strong contact thus playing it on to a jubilant Karthik behind.
With the required run rate climbing and wickets falling, Smith tried to up the ante but missed and was caught by de Villiers off Wiese. The same pressure told on Rahane too with the required rate rising to 14 an over after 13 overs. The India batsman tried to clear the boundary but slashed and was easily caught when attempting a slog sweep.
If that wasn’t enough, James Faulkner’s dismissal highlighted their poor luck on the night too. The Aussie tried to play on the offside but his shot took an edge and hit his foot directly which lobbed the ball in the direction of Arvind who took it with much ease.
After winning the toss, RCB decided to bat first and that decision proved to be the winning one.
Starting with their usual pairing of Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli, RCB didn’t enjoy the best of starts as they are accustomed to. Royals’ captain Steve Smith used Chris Morris, James Faulkner, Dhawal Kulkarni and Shane Watson in the first four overs to keep things mixed for the lethal duo.
In his second over, Dhawal Kulkarni sent Gayle back to the dug out. The West Indian batsman tried to go for a big one from a short of length delivery but missed the ball completely with the top of the middle wicket uprooted. Gayle went for 27 runs from 26 balls.
Adding the scalp of Kohli to his figures, Kulkarni sent the RCB captain back after what looked like a confusion of choice of shot. With the ball pitching outside off, India’s Test captain tried to play it towards midwicket but closed the blade a little too soon thus allowing the bowler to catch it with ease.
After that, de Villiers and Mandeep took RCB to a strong total without taking any risks or attempting any dangerous shots.
Dhawal’s final over brought 13 runs to ruin his bowling figures (4-0-28-2) with Mandeep hitting him for a four from outside off and then for a six over long off. It was a welcome boundary for the side with the previous boundary coming 30 balls earlier and they had lost two wickets in the period.
After 10 overs, Rajasthan seemed to have the strong RCB batting contained at 60/2. But that’s when it all changed as the final six overs produced 86 runs.
In Ankit Sharma’s 15th over of the RCB inning, who came in for Brainder Sran, AB de Villiers proved why he’s one of the most feared batsmen in the world. He took the left arm spinner to all over the park hitting 19 runs. His huge six over mid wicket brought up the 100 for his side. The next delivery, he hit the same shot in the same area and produced the same result. He rounded up the over with a four.
In a sign of things, de Villiers brought up his fifty with a six and that also brought up the 100 run partnership between the two from 61 deliveries. Chris Morris’ 17 run over was laced with two sixes hit with comfortable ease.
Trying to bring in more runs, the South African was run out by Stuart Binny in an attempt at stealing a second run. As AB went back, the crowd cheered his quick-fire inning of 66 from 38 balls which saw four fours and four sixes.