Five years ago at the Newlands in Capetown, the Royal Challengers Bangalore decimated the Rajasthan Royals by dismissing them for just 58. Today at Abu Dhabi, Rajasthan looked set to pay it back to their Royal counterparts but the Challengers somehow managed to reach 70. 71 is a score that won’t bother the team chasing in T20’s as the Royals form Jaipur hardly dropped a sweat in their six wicket victory over their opponents. With this win, Rajasthan now has four points from four games, the same numbers associated with Bangalore.
Chasing an easy 70 for victory, Royals were off to a rather decent start by posting 36 in the field restriction overs for the loss of 3 wickets. Rahane was the first to depart when he edged a Mitchell Starc delivery to Parthiv Patel and was followed by Sanju Samson who ran himself out while coming back for the second. The scalp of Karun Nair might have given some hope for Challengers but the target they set was too low to force a comeback into the match. Royals skipper Shane Watson made sure that there was no further hiccups and took his team home with seven overs to spare.
After put into bat by Royals skipper Shane Watson on a greenish surface, Royal Challengers innings got off to a worst possible start as they lost both their openers in the very first over of the match. Yogesh Takawale was caught behind off Stuart Binny and Parthiv Patel was run-out after a miscommunication with Virat Kohli. A lot was in store for RCB in the field restriction overs as they lost the wickets of Yuvraj Singh, AB de Villiers and Sachin Rana with just 22 on the board. Yuvraj looked completely out of touch as he guided a Kane Richardson delivery straight to the second slip. De Villiers and Rana chopped the ball on to the stumps off Richardson and Watson respectively.
A lot was expected from Kohli and Albie Morkel to take their team home but Pravin Tambe accounted for Morkel leaving the Challengers reeling at 28 for 6. And to make the things worse for RCB, Kohli took back the long walk back to the pavilion after providing Tim Southee a sitter off Tambe with the scorecard reading 46. Soon the Royals bowlers cleaned up the tail and restricted them to a below par 70. Kohli top scored for the Challengers with 21 whereas leg spinner Tambe accounted for 4 wickets.
Royal Challengers take on Kings XI Punjab in their next game on 28 April and Royals face Kolkata Knight Riders the following day.
Brief Scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore 70 in 15 overs (Virat Kohli 21, Kane Richardson 2-18, Pravin Tambe 4-20) lost to Rajasthan Royals 71 for 4 in 13 overs (Shane Watson 24, Ajinkya Rahane 23, Mitchell Starc 2-29) by 6 wickets.