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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Rajasthan earn first points as RCB lose fourth match

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JAIPUR: The Rajasthan Royals earned their first points of VIVO IPL 2019 after they defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by seven wickets on Tuesday evening. After opting to bowl first at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, the Rajasthan Royals restricted the Royal Challengers to 158-4 and then chased down the runs in the last over. The result leaves RCB as the only winless team in the competition; they have now lost all four matches they’ve played this season.


In pursuit of 159, the Rajasthan Royals openers came out all guns blazing. Ajinkya Rahane and Jos Buttler added 55 runs in the powerplay overs. After Rahane (22 off 20) was dismissed in the eighth over — trapped LBW by a googly from Yuzvendra Chahal, Buttler and Steve Smith added 44 in five overs. That partnership was broken when Buttler was forced into reaching for a tossed up wide leg-break, didn’t get sufficiently under the ball and picked out long-off. Smith (38 from 31 balls) and Rahul Tripathi were involved in a 56-run stand that took the hosts to the brink. Tripathi (34* from 23 balls) brought up the win in style, hitting Umesh Yadav for a six over square-leg.


RCB didn’t help their own cause by putting down three catches; Kohli put down Rahane, Umesh Yadav dropped Smith, and Moeen Ali put down Tripathi.


Earlier, Royal Challengers Bangalore, who made three changes to the side that took the field in the previous match, got off to a steady start with the opening pair of Parthiv Patel and Virat Kohli stitching together a 49-run partnership. RCB lost a bit of momentum when they lost thee wickets in a short period of time to slip to 73-3.


Parthiv Patel, who had been a spectator watching wickets fall at the other end, then took control of proceedings and brought up his twelfth IPL half-century. He, and Marcus Stoinis, who made his debut for RCB, added 53 runs for the fourth wicket to take the team past the 100-run mark. After Parthiv was dismissed for a well-compiled 67, Stoinis (31 not out) and Moeen Ali (18 not out from 9 balls) added 32 runs in 2.5 overs to guide RCB to a respectable total.


Shreyas strikes


For the Rajasthan Royals, the two spinners — K Gowtham and Shreyas Gopal — were the stand out bowlers.


As always, the expectations were on Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers to power RCB. After both players fell to Shreyas Gopal’s googly, the responsibility fell on Parthiv Patel’s shoulders to see the team to a respectable total.


Parthiv batted until the eighteenth over and made 67 when he was deceived by a slower delivery from Jofra Archer and hit it down the throat of long-on. Steve Smith made 38 runs.


For the second time in two matches, a Bangalore lad - playing for the Rajasthan Royals - was causing the Royal Challengers grief. After picking up 4-16 against RCB in Jaipur last season, Shreyas Gopal was at it again. On Tuesday evening, he consumed RCB’s top guns – Kohli and de Villiers, and added the wicket of Shimron Hetmyer, finishing with 4-1-12-3 and claiming the man of the match award.


Shreyas’ first wicket was the outcome of a dream ball; it was the wrong ‘un which pitched outside off, had the batsman thinking just enough for the ball to turn back, sneak through the gate and crash into the stumps. This was no ordinary batsman at the receiving end; it was Virat Kohli.


Shreyas’ next victim would be AB de Villiers; this time the googly stopped on the pitch, took the bottom part of the bat and lobbed back to the bowler, who completed a good return catch. Shreyas’ third victim was Shimron Hetmyer, who edged a googly to Jos Buttler behind the stumps.


Brief Scores: Rajasthan Royals: 164-3 in 19.5 overs (Jos Buttler 59, Steve Smith 38, Rahul Tripathi 34) defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore: 158-4 (Parthiv Patel 67, Marcus Stoinis 31, Shreyas Iyer 3-12) by 7 wickets.


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