Royal Challengers survive Royals’ challenge

Bowlers hold their own after Du Plessis, Maxwell come good again in 7-run win

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s in-form duo of Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell sparkled yet again and their bowling colleagues then dished out a composed show under pressure as the hosts downed Rajasthan Royals in a hard-fought IPL encounter here on Sunday.

Joining forces after Royal Challengers were reduced to 12/2 in the third over, Du Plessis (62, 39b, 8x4, 2x4) and Maxwell (77, 44b, 6x4, 4x6) forged a brilliantly counter-attacking 127-run stand off just 67 balls to steer the hosts to a competitive 189/9 at a sold-out M Chinnaswamy stadium.

However, with Rajasthan boasting of a powerful battling line-up, and with the ground being compact where even mishits fly into the stands, it looked like Challengers may end up paying for their shambolic batting in their final five overs where they managed to score just 33 runs following the dismissal of Du Plessis and Maxwell.

Read | Sachin technically the best batter, his comparison with Virat will have to wait: Ricky Ponting

The hosts needed a strong show from their bowlers and they didn’t disappoint one bit as they managed to bowl with rarely-seen collective discipline and character to restrict Rajasthan to 182/6.

They looked concerned when opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (47, 37b, 5x4, 2x6) and one-drop Devdutt Padikkal (52, 34b, 7x4, 1x4) were motoring along smoothly in the Powerplay, the duo making the utmost use of the fielding restrictions.

However, once the Powerplay ended and skipper Virat Kohli was able to spread the field out, the bowlers were successful in tying down both Jaiswal and Padikkal. They bowled tight lines, barely allowing the young duo to open their shoulders.

Both Jaiswal and Padikkal struggled to find the boundaries and with the required run-rate creeping up with every sedate over, pressure started to mount. Something had to give at that stage and Padikkal was the first to depart in the 12th over, his attempted big shot off the impressive David Willey landing safely into the hands off Kohli at long-on. Jaiswal too joined Padikkal soon in the dug-out, departing in similar fashion.

With their tails-up, Royal Challengers continued to tighten the noose on Rajasthan Royals. Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer, both with big-hitting prowess, struggled to enforce the issue. Bizarrely, both Samson and Hetmyer opted to either defend or take singles instead of finding boundaries. They hoped to take the contest deeper but it was always going to be a double-edged sword if wickets tumbled. That’s precisely what happened as Samson departed in the 16th over and Hetmyer was run-out then following an electrifying piece of fielding. Royal Challengers started to smell victory at that stage but Dhruv Jurel (34 n.o., 16b, 2x2, 2x6) and R Ashwin (12, 6b, 2x4) threatened to pull off a coup with some late fireworks.

With 20 needed off the final over, anything seemed possible at that stage. And when Harshal Patel conceded 10 off the first three balls, RCB camp looked tense. Harshal, though, held his composure, dismissing Ashwin off the fourth ball and then conceding just two runs off the last two balls as RCB triumphed.