Royals stay alive after ending RCB’s campaign
jaipur — Rajasthan Royals rode on a fine half century from Rahul Tripathi, combined with legspinner Shreyas Gopal’s four-for to outclass Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 30 runs and more importantly keep themselves in the hunt for a place in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Play-offs.
With the win, Rajasthan rose to the fourth spot in the IPL tally with 14 points while RCB’s campaign has ended on a disappointing note, thanks to their inconsistent performances in this edition.
On Saturday, the visitors made a heavy weather of their chase of Rajasthan’s 164/5 to be eventually bundled out for 134 runs, with Gopal (4/16) ripping through the top order at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium here. Gopal was complimented well by fellow spinners Krishnappa Gowtham (1/6) and Ish Sodhi (1/31) while the pace twins of Jaydev Unadkat and Ben Laughlin shared the rest of the four scalps between them.
Barring AB de Villiers (53 from 35 balls; 4x7) and Parthiv Patel (33 from 21; 4x3, 6x2), none of the visiting batsmen could offer any resistance to the disciplined Rajasthan bowling as wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals.
While Gowtham started the onslaught with the wicket of skipper Virat Kohli (4) in the third over, Gopal accounted for the scalps of Parthiv, de Villiers, Moeen Ali (1) and Mandeep Singh (3) in quick succession.
Despite the loss of two key overseas players in England’s Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes, who have left for national duty, Rajasthan managed to keep the fight and leave the tourists high and dry.—