Clinical Gujarat thump RCB

Play-off hopes diminish further for Kohli's men as they crash to 7-wkt defeat

 Royal Challengers Bangalore’s campaign took another turn for the worse. Dishing out another shoddy batting performance, they crashed to a seven-wicket defeat against Gujarat Lions to slump toseventh in the table in the Indian Premier League here on Thursday.

Barring a brilliant cameo from Pawan Negi 32 (19b, 3x4, 2x6) lower down the order and a counter-attacking 31 (18b, 4x4, 1x6) from Kedar Jadhav, the Challengers’ famed batting line-up yet again misfired, folding up for an under-par 134 at a packed Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Needing a big win to resurrect their own flagging fortunes, the Gujarat Lions rode on a stirring show from Aaron Finch (72, 34b, 5x4, 6x6) to pick up their third win and climb to sixth in the table. Royal Challengers, following their sixth defeat in nine games, now find themselves in a extremely difficult position to make the play-offs cut.

The Lions' bowling performance in this edition of the IPL, like RCB’s batting, had not been upto the mark but they came out a determined lot after their skipper Suresh Raina won the toss and chose to field. Opening pacers Nathu Singh and Basil Thampi, aware of RCB’s batting travails, kept things extremely tight.

While Virat Kohli manufactured a couple of shots in a bid to release the pressure, Chris Gayle opted to play the waiting game. Nathu and Thampi kept bowling a probing line though and the latter was rewarded with a wicket when Kohli pulled straight to Finch at short fine leg.

From 22/1 it soon became 22/3 as Gayle and Travis Head returned back to the dug-out with Andrew Tye (3/12) effecting the dismissals. The familiar doubts then started to creep into RCB and it played on the minds of the great A B de Villiers as well.

The South African, caught in a dilemma whether to counter-attack or bide time and explode later, struggled to get going. However, Jadhav eased the pressure with a typically pugnacious innings. Taking on the Lions’ bowlers, he fought fire with fire as RCB finally appeared to get a move on.

Going strong, Jadhav then threw it all away with a horrendous shot, giving himself room to cut Ravindra Jadeja only the see the ball crash onto his stumps. His dismissal had a snowball effect and de Villiers, attempting a non-existent single, ran himself out following a communication error with Mandeep Singh as RCB were reduced to 60/5 in just 9.3 overs.

Negi then threw his bat around with gay abandon to bring life back into the normally vociferous Bengaluru crowd and his team. But he too lasted only for a short while and when he held out to Thampi in the deep with another 5.3 overs remaining, it was pretty much doom for RCB.

Having seen Delhi Daredevils and RCB fall in low chases this season, the Lions kick-started their run chase on a high tempo and even though they lost the wickets of Ishan Kishan and Brendon McCullum early on, a pulsating innings from Finch ensured they were never in trouble.

Blasting the ball to all parts of the ground, Finch demolished the Challengers single-handedly to leave them battered and bruised.

Score board

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE: Chris Gayle c Karthik b Tye 8 (11b, 1x4), Virat Kohli c Finch b Thampi 10 (13b, 1x6), A B de Villiers (run out) 5 (11b), Travis Head c Raina b Tye 0 (1b), Kedar Jadhav b Jadeja 31 (18b, 4x4, 1x6), Mandeep Singh c Jadeja b Tye 8 (14b), Pawan Negi c Thampi b Soni 32 (19b, 3x4, 2x6), Samuel Badree c Kishan b Jadeja 3 (3b), S Arvind c McCullum b Faulkner 9 (16b), Aniket Choudhary (not out) 15 (12b, 1x4),  Yuzvendra Chahal (run out) 1 (2b). Extras (LB-9, W-3) 12. Total (all out, 20 overs) 134.

Fall of wickets: 1-22 (Kohli),  2-22 (Gayle), 3-22 (Head), 4-58 (Jadhav), 5-60 (de Villiers), 6-100 (Negi), 7-105 (Badree), 8-110 (Mandeep), 9-133 (Arvind). 

Bowling: Nathu Singh 2-0-8-0 (w-1), Basil Thampi 4-0-34-1 (w-1), Andrew Tye 4-0-12-3, Ravindra Jadeja 4-0-28-2, Ankit Soni 3-0-28-1 (w-1), James Faulkner 3-0-15-1.

GUJARAT LIONS: Ishan Kishan lbw Badree 16 (11b, 4x4), Brendon McCullum c de Villiers b Badree 3 (6b), Suresh Raina (not out) 34 (30b, 4x4, 1x6), Aaron Finch c de Villiers b Negi 72 (34b, 5x4, 6x6), Ravindra Jadeja (not out) 2 (4b). Extras (LB-2, W-4, NB-2) 8. Total (for 3 wkts, 13.5 overs) 135. 
Fall of wickets: 1-18 (Kishan), 2-23 (McCullum), 3-115 (Finch).

Bowling: Samuel Badree 3-0-29-2, S Arvind 3-0-19-0 (nb-1, w-1), Aniket Choudhary 2-0-21-0 (w-2), Yuzvendra Chahal 3-0-29-0 (nb-1), Pawan Negi 2-0-24-1 (w-1), Travis Head 0.5-0-11-0.