ABD’S magic helps RCB to vanquish RR by 7-wickets
DUBAI: AB de Villiers’ 55 off 22 balls guided Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to a seven-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals at Dubai International Stadium here on Saturday.
Chasing 178 runs, RCB had a 23-run brief partnership between Aaron Finch and Devdutt Padikkal. Shreyas Gopal dismissed Finch (14) in the fourth over and provided the first breakthrough for his side. Skipper Virat Kohli joined Padikkal in the middle and stitched a 79run strong partnership for the 79-run. Padikkal departed after playing a knock of 35 runs off Rahul Tewatia.
Kohli was also sent back to the pavilion in the next over by Karthik Tyagi. He smashed 43 off 32 balls including two sixes and a four.
AB de Villiers and Gurkeerat Singh built the match-winning 77-run unbeaten stand to put their side over the line. De Villiers played a knock of 55 runs including six sixes while Gurkeerat scored 19. RCB scored 179/3 in 19.4 overs.
For Rajasthan, Karthik Tyagi, Rahul Tewatia and Shreyas Gopal scalped one wicket each.
Earlier, skipper Steve Smith’s gutsy half-century and Rahul Tewatia’s death over cameo powered Rajasthan Royals to post 177 runs. The Royals smashed 19 and 15 runs in the 18th and 19th over respectively. The run-scoring was largely powered by Smith as he smashed 57 runs off 36 balls. Meanwhile, Tewatia scored 19 runs off 11 balls.
However, Morris again helped RCB make a comeback as he conceded only four runs in the final overs. The right-handed bowler execution also dismissed Smith and Jofra Archer to restrict the Royals at 177/6.
Opting to bat first, Rajasthan Royals got off to a flyer with opening batsman Robin Uthappa bludgeoning the RCB’S bowling attack with Ben Stokes playing the role of second fiddle.
Brief score: Rajasthan Royals 177/6 (Robin Uthappa 41, Steve Smith 57, Chris Morris 4-26) lost to RCB 179/3 (AB de Villiers 55*, Virat Kohli 43, Karthik Tyagi 1-32) by seven wickets.