The unrelenting Josh Hazlewood fashioned Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s first win at home this IPL season with an extraordinary penultimate over as his team prevailed over Rajasthan Royals by 11 runs in a see-saw affair in Bengaluru on Thursday. The defeat meant RR are out of the reckoning for a place in play-offs berth in the ongoing edition of the league. They have lost seven matches out of nine. Coming on to bowl with RR needing 18 off 12 deliveries, Hazlewood (4/33) picked up two wickets in as many balls while giving away just one run, as the visitors were stopped at 194 for nine in a chase of 206 at a packed Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Hazlewood’s heroics meant Yashasvi Jaiswal’s (49 off 19 balls) blazing knock at the top of the order and Dhruv Jurel’s (47 off 34 balls) valiant effort went in vain as RR suffered their fifth defeat on the trot.
This was after RCB star batter Virat Kohli (70 off 42 balls) and Devdutt Padikkal (50 off 27 balls) controlled the middle overs with a partnership of 95 for the second wicket.
Set a target of 206, RR’s start was brutal with Jaiswal and 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi amassing 52 runs in 27 balls before the latter was bowled by a Bhuvneshwar Kumar knuckle ball after the teenager went for one too many, having hit two sixes in his 16-run knock.
Suryavanshi was RR’s impact player.
Jaiswal, who began the RR innings with a six on the leg side off Bhuvneshwar, smashed Yash Dayal for 18 runs as the visitors started the chase in earnest.
The swashbuckling Jaiswal then went after Hazlewood and clobbered the experienced Australian pacer for three successive fours in an eventful over that also comprised three dot balls.
Not content with his punishment of Hazlewood, Jaiswal hit the Australian for two more fours and a six over the keeper.
Leading run-scorers –
However, after being taken to the cleaners, Hazlewood had the last laugh as he cut short Jaiswal’s whirlwind stay when he crammed the batter for room and forced him to pull one straight to Romario Shepherd at mid-wicket.
RR, nevertheless, had raced to 72 for two by the end of power play as Riyan Parag (22 off 10 balls) walked into the middle.
Enduring an indifferent run of form, Parag looked in the mood on the night and smoked Suyash Sharma, RCB’s impact sub, for a maximum over deep square-leg.
Parag, however, could not sustain it for long as Krunal Pandya put RCB ahead with the wicket of the stand-in skipper and Nitish Rana (28 off 22 balls).
Hazlewood accounted for the wicket of Shimron Hetmyer, as the game swung in favour of RCB with RR still needing quite a lot.
Earlier, on a sticky pitch where stroke-making was not easy, RCB were also well-served by Jitesh Sharma (20 not out off 10 balls) and Tim David (23 off 15 balls), who struck some lusty blows to take RCB past 200.
Leading wicket-takers –
Batting first after losing their fourth toss at home this season, RCB were off to a decent start after an eventful first over by Jofra Archer, who conceded 11 runs, including bowling a 149.8km bumper that bounced over the keeper for a four.
There was drama in the second over too, as a diving Riyan Parag, leading RR in the absence of injured Sanju Samson, dropped Phil Salt (26 off 23 balls) at mid-off after getting both hands to the ball off the bowling of Fazalhaq Farooqi.
After getting a boundary off a thick inside edge, Kohli pulled Archer for a four to the deep square leg region.
With RR looking for their first breakthrough, medium pacer Tushar Deshpande was introduced into the attack, and Salt welcomed him with two boundaries on either side of the wicket.
Back on strike, Kohli flicked a Deshpande delivery that was asking to be punished for a boundary as RCB crossed 50 in the fifth over. With another lovely hit to the fence, off Sandeep Sharma, Kohli helped RCB finish the power play with 59 runs on the board.
Leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga gave RR their first breakthrough when he had Salt caught at deep mid-wicket after the batter got a leading edge as he shaped up to hoick the ball on the on-side.
Kohli got to his half-century in 32 balls, his fifth of the season and first at home, after collecting back-to-back fours off Sandeep.
At the other end, Padikkal was in his element as he kept scoring boundaries at will and was also helped by a drop catch by Deshpande in the deep off Hasaranga.
Kohli and Padikkal then started dealing in sixes against Parag and Deshpande, with the latter bowler being smashed for three maximums in the 15th over, which fetched RCB 22 runs.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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