Supergiants spoil Royal Challengers home party
The Royal Challengers Bangalore’s miserably run continued as they fell to a crushing 27-run loss to Rising Pune Supergiant at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, here on Sunday.
Having restricted the visitors to 161/8, the Challengers failed to get going as they lost opener Mandeep Singh to a duck. Skipper Virat Kohli who opened his innings in flambouyant fashion with a six, survived when he was dropped on 11 by Manoj Tiwary.
But Kohli failed to make use of his lifeline as Ben Stokes got the captain, as a clumsy shot found him caught by Rahane this time to send him back. Dhoni made no mistake behind the wickets as he uprooted De Villiers’ (29, 30, 1x4, 2x6) stump before the Pretoria man could do much damage.
The RCB batting line-up, which had terrified bowlers at one time, seemed to have lost their magic, as the boundaries failed to come and the wickets toppled at regular intervals to hand the visitors an easy victory.
Shardul Thakur helped the visitors defend as he picked up three wickets, with Ben Stokes pocketing two.
Earlier, the Pune outfit got off to an ideal start, with Ajinkya Rahane and Rahul Tripathi building a solid opening partnership.
The visitors looked set, with Rahane, playing his 100th IPL match, setting the tone along with Tripathi, for an opening partnership of 63 off 46. But just as the boundaries started to roll, Samuel Badree came to RCB’s rescue as he got his first scalp for the night, picking up the big wicket of Rahane.
Badree deceived the Indian trapping him with a googly, which sent the 28year-old back to the pavilion, to make way for skipper Steve Smith (27, 24b, 3x4).
Tripathi, who was dropped on 21 by Milne, soon followed Rahane back, to send the crowd into raptures as MS Dhoni walked in.
With the former Indian skipper at the centre, the crowd couldn’t resist cheering him on, despite him being in the rival team. And Dhoni (28, 25b, 3x4, 1x6) looked set for a big score, sending the ball literally out of the park.