Royal Challengers Bangalore often bank heavily on their star cluster to power them to victory in each match. The trait had landed them in trouble in the past but on Sunday, their big names delivered as RCB emerged a seven-run winner over Rajasthan Royals.
The result meant that the Royal Challengers will stay inside the upper strata of the IPL 2023 points table.
The 189 for 9 they posted was the result of a combined effort by skipper Faf du Plesiss (62 off 39 balls) and Glenn Maxwell (77 off 44 balls).
The significance of their knocks was underlined by the fact that the next highest individual score in RCB innings was Dinesh Karthik’s 16. After Trent Boult inflicted twin blows removing Virat Kohli and Shahbaz Ahmed, RCB needed a solid alliance to take the innings forward.
Du Plessis, Maxwell play starring role with the bat
Du Plessis, the current Orange Cap holder, and Maxwell did precisely that and then more. It was not really an easy paced pitch to bat on but Du Plessis and Maxwell papered over that tackiness to produce two brilliant innings where they struck runs well in excess of 150.
Du Plessis and Maxwell milked 137 runs in just 11 overs as RCB reached 139 in just 13.2 overs, and a perfect launching pad was set for a 200+ total. However, the dismissal of Du Plessis changed the tone of RCB innings.
RCB suffer late collapse
A procession of batters started from that point. In the remaining 7 overs and thereabouts, RCB could manage to add just 50 runs losing 5 wickets. It was the second time in as many matches that the RCB batters failed to deliver in the backend of the innings.
However, the 189 was a par score and what RCB required was an accurate bowling effort considering the short boundaries at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Siraj strikes in powerplay again
Pacer Mohammed Siraj, the biggest name in RCB bowling unit, gave the team a perfect start, wobble seam delivery crashing through the defence of RR captain Jos Buttler.
It was a body blow for the Royals in the chase of a not so insignificant 190 and they struggled to keep the pace of chase thereafter.
Devdutt Padikkal (52 off 34 balls) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (47 off 37 balls) stitched together a 98-run partnership for the second wicket in just over 11 overs.
But RR needed a bit more than that and the likes of Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer could not find their range in the evening.
Dhruv Jorel played a little gem of a 16-ball 34 but Harshal Patel had enough poise in him to defend 20 runs in the last over.
